Cops Say Georgia Dad Killed Two Kids, Stabbed Self in Surprise Twist

Feb. 14, 2011— -- A gruesome attack that ended in the stabbing deaths of two small children and the critical wounding of a third took a bizarre turn Sunday, when the principle witness in the case – the boys' father – became the prime suspect, police said.

Gwinett County Police say Elvis Noe-Garcia, the boys' father who called 911 last week to report his children's murder and say he too had been stabbed in the chest, actually committed the crime himself, perhaps in an effort to frame another man.

Now, 48 hours after Noe-Garcia's testimony landed Antonio Cardenas-Rico, 27, in jail, the two men have switched places. Noe-Garcia now sits in a solitary cell in Georgia's Gwinnett County Jail, and Cardenas-Rico is outside – exonerated.

"I didn't do anything," Cardenas-Rico told ABC News affiliate WSB-TV, moments before his release from jail.

"Why is this happening to me? What I did to deserve this?" Cardenas-Rico asked.

And then as if to answer his own question, said: "He set me up, so I wouldn't be with her."

On Friday Noe-Garcia ran from his Lawrenceville, Ga., home, bleeding from wounds in his chest. While on the phone with 911, he ran to the garage of a neighbor and told the man there, "[Cardenas-Rico] killed my children."

"It was horrific," neighbor Lewton Thomas told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

At the time of Cardenas-Rico's arrest, police believed he was responsible for killing one-year-old Edward Garcia and his three-year-old brother, Bradley; wounding Bradley's twin, Joshua; and their father.

Police at the time were unsure how Cardenas-Rico knew the family, but believed he may have been the boys' mother's ex-boyfriend.

Now cops believe Noe-Garcia and the boys' mother were separated and the woman was dating Cardenas-Rico.

"Charges against our initial suspect were dropped," said Gwinnett County Police spokesman Cpl. Jake Smith, "and made instead against the father, the man who first called 911 and claimed someone had tried to murder him and his kids."

Cops said they did not yet know why Noe-Garcia allegedly attacked his kids.

Botched Murder-Suicide or Set Up?

"The motive is not real clear," said Smith. "There was a history of arguments between the two suspects – the one exonerated and the one arrested."

"We don't know if it was intended to be a murder-suicide and when he stabbed himself, he realized he couldn't do it, or if he was trying to frame Cardenas-Rico from the start," Smith said.

Cops said discrepancies in the father's testimony and Cardenas-Rico's strong alibi led them to suspect they may have apprehended the wrong man.

Since Noe-Garcia was jailed, Smith said, he has been uncooperative and disruptive. He has been placed in solitary confinement.

Cardenas-Rico, who has a wife in Las Vegas, is an illegal immigrant. Though police said he is no longer a suspect in this case, his brush with the legal system means his status is now known to authorities and he can face deportation, he said.