Robert Caballero – Latino, age 31
Sentenced to death in Los Angeles County, California
By: jury
Date of crime: killing spree in 2009
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Caballero is a 12th Street gang member who killed Armando Vidana, a Cherryville gang member, whom he shot eight times and left his body in the street. Caballero also kidnapped an 18-year-old. He met her in Las Vegas and got her addicted to meth. He convinced her to go to California with him. Once they were in California, he would not let her leave him, talk to anyone, and he would beat her. On November 5, Caballero became paranoid and strangled Lorraine Minjarez for fear she would tell the police he killed Vidana. Caballero then became suspicious of David Padilla’s, his cousin’s, loyalty. On November 7th, he lured Padilla to a remote freeway overpass and had his accomplice, Andrew Valenzuela, strangle Padilla and beat him with rocks while the kidnapped victim and Caballero watched.
Sources: San Bernardino County Sun 2/19/15 (2015 WLNR 5157431), http://www.sbsun.com/article/zz/20101218/NEWS/101219134
Juan Coronado, Jr. – Latino, age 21
Sentenced to death in Riverside County, California
By: jury
Date of crime: 1/23/08
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Lupe Delgadillo, an 85-year-old man, gave Kristina Lynn Allen, a 17-year-old girl, a ride in his car. He unknowingly was tricked and Eusebio Fierros was waiting at the drop off. Fierros beat Delgadillo and threw him into the trunk and drove to meet Coronado. Coronado shot Delgadillo in the face and dumped the body into a ravine. Fierros was sentenced to death in 2012 for the crime and Allen was charged in adult court with murder and carjacking.
Source: Orange County Register 2/21/15 (2015 WLNR 39238722), Orange County Register 3/11/15 (2015 WLNR 39228486), Orange County Register 4/18/15 (2015 WLNR 39234889)
Robert Dunson – white, age 25
Sentenced to death in Riverside County, California
By: jury
Date of crime: 11/26/07
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Dunson murdered William George Dobbs, an Indio snowbird. Dunson slashed Dobbs to death during a robbery and nearly decapitated him.
Sources: The Desert Sun 3/25/15, The Desert Sun 12/17/15 (2015 WLNR 39385237)
Angel Esparza – Latino, age 25
Sentenced to death in Riverside County, California
By: jury
Date of crime: 12/19/09
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Esparza was charged with a prior killing of Angel Luna, 16, and it was originally combined with the following two murders. However, the jury only convicted Esparza for Luna’s death and the DA’s office retried the other killings before a new jury. Esparza was staying with Christina Zapata and her daughter, Cecilia Morin, in Thermal while on the run from law enforcement. The victims, Gregorio Juarez and Pedro Garcia, were supposed to pay to have sex with Morin. Esparza went into Morin’s bedroom with a revolver and order Juarez and Garcia to the floor then stole their wallets and bound them. He and Zapata drove them to a vineyard and shot them.
Source: The Desert Sun 8/15/14 (2014 WLNR 37203848)
Miguel Felix – Latino, age 23
Sentenced to death in Riverside County, California
By: jury
Date of crime: 8/11/04
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Felix was convicted of 24 charges stemming from a spree of home invasion robberies between the summer of 2004 until the spring of 2005. Felix worked with accomplices and they would grab victims at or near their homes, forced them inside at gunpoint, tied them up with zip-ties, beat them, and searched the home for valuables. During one of the robberies, Felix shot Armand Gonzalez multiple times in his driveway in front of his wife and children. The defense argued that Felix targeted drug dealers and that the killing of Gonzalez was not a robbery attempt, but rather a result of a personal feud.
Sources: San Bernardino County Sun 4/13/15 (2015 WLNR 39009751), The Desert Sun 12/17/15 (2015 WLNR 39385237)
Robert Fuller – white, age 55
Sentenced to death in Kern County, California
By: jury
Date of crime: 8/2009
Prosecution’s case/defense response: In April 2009, Fuller shot himself in the head and then attacked neighbors with a pair of hedge trimmers before the police shot him with a Taser and took him to the hospital. The shot to the head destroyed a significant portion of his brain and he suffered from brain damage that impacted his behavior. In August 2009, Fuller broke into a house and shot his estranged wife, 45 years old, and her mother, 69 years old. The defense tried to argue that the brain damage was the cause for the killing. The defense also hoped that the death sentence would not be imposed because a federal judge ruled California’s execution procedures violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban against cruel and unusual punishment.
Sources: The Bakersfield Californian 12/2/14 (2014 WLNR 34014489), The Bakersfield Californian 1/12/15 (2015 WLNR 1276823)
Tyrone Harts – black, age 38
Sentenced to death in Riverside County, California
By: jury
Date of crime: 02/21/11
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Harts was in a relationship with Brandi Morales-Rael for 3 years before they broke up. Morales-Rael then started dating someone else and Harts was angry. In front of Moales-Rael’s children, Harts shot Morales-Rael, tried to shoot her oldest son, and then set her on fire. Some children went to get help while others tried to put out the fire with cups of water. The defense presented evidence that Harts grew up in an abusive home environment with his mother using crack, his mother killing Harts’ abusive stepfather, a father who manufactured crack, and had prostitutes living with them. Then Harts was placed in foster care.
Sources: The Orange County Register 11/4/14 2014 (WLNR 38246228), The Orange County Register 11/22/14 2014 (WLNR 38284137), The Orange County Register 1/31/15 (2015 WLNR 3922988)
Corey King – black, age 18
Sentenced to death in Los Angeles County, California
By: jury
Date of crime: 9/9/08
Prosecution’s case/defense response: King killed Sonya Durfield Harris and her three children inside their home. Harris was stabbed more than 50 times, her 14-year-old daughter was stabbed more than 60 times, her 11-year-old daughter was beaten and stomped to death, and her 9-year-old daughter was strangled. King then went to a gas station to fill several bottles with gasoline and then set the house on fire. While the motive for killing Harris is unclear, it is believed that King and Harris may have gotten into an argument. King killed the girls because they were witnesses to their mother’s murder.
Sources: Los Angeles Times 11/26/14 (2014 WLNR 33268611), Los Angeles Times 11/27/14 (2014 WLNR 33462808), Los Angeles Times 12/31/14 (2014 WLNR 36980270)
Belinda Magana – Latina, age 23 (see also Naresh Narine)
Sentenced to death in Riverside County, California
By: jury
Date of crime: 5/9/09
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Magana’s toddler son, Malachi Magana, suffered from scalding injuries and neither Magana nor her boyfriend, Naresh “Michael” Narine, sought medical help for fear of getting in trouble. Malachi was scalded in the shower when his mother and brother were at the grocery store. However, Narine blames the brother for turning the hot water on. Magana applied diaper ointment, but both Magana and Narine admitted to beating the toddler to stop him from crying. Experts stated that blunt force trauma to his head and complications of the burn contributed to the death. The toddler’s body was stuffed into a trash bag and was then buried in the Lytle Creek foothills. The next day, Magana called the police to report him missing. After questioning by Corona police, Magana admitted that the boy was dead and told the police where he was buried. Magana and Narine were found guilty of first-degree murder, torture, mayhem, and child abuse.
Sources: The Orange County Register 1/14/15 (2015 WLNR 39221396), The Orange County Register 2/1/15 (2015 WLNR 39227065), The Orange County Register 5/2/15 (2015 WLNR 39228573)
Iftekhar Murtaza– Asian, age 22
Sentenced to death in Orange County, California
By: jury
Date of crime: 2007
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Murtaza killed Jayprakash and Karishma Dhanak, the father and sister of his ex-girlfriend. Murtaza blamed the family for the break up with his ex, Shayona Dhanak, because the family were Hindus while Murtaza is a Muslim. Murtaza burned the family’s home and kidnapped the family members. Leela Dhanak, Shonya’s mother, was found in the neighbor’s yard with her throat slit, but she survived. The burned bodies of the father and sister were found in a park.
Sources: The Orange County Register 3/4/15 (2015 WLNR 39238881), India West 3/20/15 (2015 WLNR 37108515)
Naresh Narine – Asian, age 36 (see also Belinda Magana)
Sentenced to death in Riverside County, California
By: jury
Date of crime: 5/9/09
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Magana’s toddler son, Malachi Magana, suffered from scalding injuries and neither Magana nor her boyfriend, Naresh “Michael” Narine, sought medical help for fear of getting in trouble. Malachi was scalded in the shower when his mother and brother were at the grocery store. However, Narine blames the brother for turning the hot water on. Magana applied diaper ointment, but both Magana and Narine admitted to beating the toddler to stop him from crying. Experts stated that blunt force trauma to his head and complications of the burn contributed to the death. The toddler’s body was stuffed into a trash bag and was then buried in the Lytle Creek foothills. The next day, Magana called the police to report him missing. After questioning by Corona police, Magana admitted that the boy was dead and told the police where he was buried. Magana and Narine were found guilty of first-degree murder, torture, mayhem, and child abuse. One of Narine’s attorneys asked the jury to consider that Narine has been a good father to his own four children. Two of Narine’s ex-wives testified about how he hit them. The mother of his children admitted to lying to law enforcement by denying abuse because she wanted to keep the family together.
Sources: The Orange County Register 1/14/15 (2015 WLNR 39221396), The Orange County Register 2/1/15 (2015 WLNR 39227065), The Orange County Register 5/2/15 (2015 WLNR 39228573)
Eddie Ricky Nealy – black, age 28
Sentenced to death in Fresno County, California
By: jury
Date of crime: August 1985
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Nealy was convicted for the rape and first-degree murder of 14-year-old Jody Lynn Wolf. Jody’s body was found floating in a southwest Fresno canal wearing only knee-high socks. An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the back of the head. Evidence was presented at trial to show that Nealy also killed Mary Charlotte Barnett in July 1988, but he was never tried for it. Barnett’s body was found in a southwest Fresno field. She was hogtied and had articles of clothing wrapped tightly around her neck. An autopsy showed that the cause of death was strangulation. Nealy was charged with capital murder in August 1991 in connection with Barnett’s death, but the case was dismissed in October 1992 after a key witness either declined to testify or was unavailable. In addition, DNA evidence found on Jody’s body matched Nealy. Nealy’s other prior convictions include three rapes, one robbery, and child abuse. In 2002, Nealy was identified as a dangerous man and Fresno law enforcement began warning the public about him.
Source: The Fresno Bee 12/15/15
Luis Rodriguez– Latino, age 24
Sentenced to death in Los Angeles County, California
By: jury
Date of crime: 7/28/07
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Rodriguez took an AK-47 and had his brother drive him to a neighborhood where a rival gang member resided. He began shooting in the neighborhood and hit 19-year-old Benjamin Velasco and 21-year-old Julio Ramirez. Both victims died. Three days after the shooting, Rodriguez was arrested for the killing of Salvador Deavila, who was killed on June 24, 2007 and he was convicted of that killing in 2008 and sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.
Source: Press-Telegram 9/22/15
Francisco Zavala, Jr. – Latino, age 20
Sentenced to death in Riverside, California
By: jury
Date of crime: 1/14/13
Prosecution’s case/defense response: Eric Sargeant Jr. was walking after school when he was confronted by three young men. Zavala demanded Sargeant to hand over his phone and Sargeant did not. The three men started punching him. Zavala then stabbed Sargeant, who died five hours later at the hospital.
Sources: AP Alert 1/18/13, The Guardian 8/9/16 (2016 WLNR 24232281), http://www.pe.com/articles/sargeant-774453-siordia-defendant.html