A man convicted of a quadruple murder in Riverside County was sentenced to the death penalty, authorities announced.
José Vladimir Larín García24, was found guilty by a jury of the execution-style murders of four people in Palm Springs, according to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.
The victims were identified as Carlos Campos-Rivera25 years old; Jacob Montgomery19 years old; Juan Duarte Raya18, and Yuliana Garcia17, who was pregnant at the time.
On February 3, 2019, Larín García was traveling in a vehicle with three of the victims. They drove to meet Campos-Rivera outside his apartment complex.
When they saw Carlos, the suspect shot him twice, including a “fatal shot to the head,” before the vehicle drove away.
According to a witness, the other three victims were heard screaming from inside the car when multiple shots were fired before a strong crash.
Arriving officers saw the crashed vehicle on Sunny Dunes Road, where the bodies of Montgomery, Duarte-Raya and Yuliana García were found inside. All victims were found with “gunshot wounds to the head.”authorities said.
Yuliana García’s hand was also found with a bullet wound, which is believed to have occurred when she “tried to protect herself from a point-blank shot,” the district attorney’s office said.
The suspect ran from the scene and was located a few blocks away., hidden under a truck. He was “spattered with the victims’ blood, without shoes or jacket” at the time, police said.
Authorities transported the suspect to the hospital to treat multiple abrasions. While he was there, he called her mother and told her that she needed to talk to a lawyer. Later He fled the hospital barefoot and still wearing his medical gown.
The next day, investigators located and arrested the suspect at a Greyhound bus station. He had shaved his head, put on different clothes and was holding a Florida-bound bus ticket booked under a false name, according to court documents.
He was charged with four counts of murder, but The trial was declared a mistrial in March 2022. A second trial was held in which the jury found the suspect guilty of four counts of first-degree murder.
They also found true the allegation of personal use of a firearm and the special circumstances of lying in wait, along with multiple victims involved. Because of these special circumstances, he was eligible for the death penalty, the district attorney’s office explained.
On February 9, a Riverside County judge upheld the jury’s findings that Larín García should be sentenced to death.
“The death penalty is reserved for those who have truly demonstrated that they have no remorse. for actions that are among the most egregious imaginable,” said Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin.
“The decision made today was not made lightly, but reflects the heinous nature of these crimes, committed by a man who took so much from so many people, for something so inconsequential,” he added.
Keep reading:
– Ohio woman admitted kidnapping 5-month-old twins whom she abandoned in different states.
– Jury charges Utah man with $2.8 million fraud by posing as federal official.