The person from Phoenix drove to Orange County with a cache of handguns, AK-47s and orders to steal tens of 1000’s of {dollars} from two males who wronged his employer.
In his wake, the person left behind 4 lifeless males, three of whom had been shot a number of occasions and left inside a burning SUV in a residential neighborhood close to Chapman College. One of many victims was additionally stabbed quite a few occasions.
The lads had been believed to have been killed Nov. 9, 2015.
The fourth man’s decomposing physique wasn’t discovered till a number of days later inside a automotive in Fontana, in accordance with the district lawyer’s workplace. He was additionally shot a number of occasions.
On Wednesday, a Superior Court docket decide sentenced 33-year-old Raul Gastellum Flores to life in jail with out the potential for parole for the 4 murders in what prosecutors describe as a drug cartel-related takeover.
“These murders had been calculated to inflict the utmost quantity of terror not solely on their victims, but additionally on the neighbors and first responders who needed to witness absolutely the horror that was unleashed on their neighborhood,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer stated in a information launch. “This was somebody who took absolute pleasure in finishing up these killings.”
The killings had been orchestrated by Rosario Adan Roman-Lopez in retaliation for brothers Edgar and Joel Berrelleza’s reducing him out of their drug trafficking enterprise run by the Sinaloa Cartel, in accordance with prosecutors.
Roman-Lopez recruited Flores to steal from the Berrelleza brothers and kill them in the event that they refused to pay, prosecutors stated.
Flores and a number of other accomplices first went to an condominium in Orange the place they confronted Fernando Meza, 20, Edgar Berrelleza, 26, and Antonio Medina, 19, who had been inside a automobile on the time, in accordance with prosecutors. Flores and his crew pressured their manner into the SUV by gunpoint and awaited orders from Roman-Lopez.
Throughout a cellphone dialog, Roman-Lopez informed Flores he knew what wanted to be performed, court docket information present. Meza and Medina had been then shot a number of occasions within the head and chest. Edgar Berrelleza was then shot within the head and again a number of occasions.
In any case three males had been killed, Flores’ accomplices acquired out of the automobile and he continued to drive towards a residential neighborhood in Orange, in accordance with prosecutors.
He stopped on Oakmont Avenue the place he set the SUV on hearth whereas he was nonetheless behind the wheel, officers stated. Flores jumped out of the shifting automobile and right into a ready sedan, court docket information present.
A surveillance video captured the burning SUV because it rolled down the road and Flores jumped out.
Simply after 2 p.m. police arrived on the scene to search out bystanders attempting to douse the flames with a backyard hose. After firefighters extinguished the blaze, police found the our bodies of two males within the again seat and a 3rd man within the entrance passenger seat.
Meza’s fingers had been certain and he was additionally stabbed a number of occasions, in accordance with authorities. An post-mortem report exhibits that soot was present in his lungs, that means he was nonetheless alive when the automobile was set on hearth.
Flores then went to an condominium in Orange the place Roman-Lopez and different accomplices had been ready with 35-year-old Joel Berrelleza, Edgar Berrelleza’s brother, prosecutors stated. Joel Berrelleza was tied up whereas Flores and the opposite males stole safes, cash and over $60,000 price of heroin from the condominium.
Flores and one other man pressured Berrelleza into his Pontiac the place he was shot thrice as they drove away. The lads recorded his dying breaths on a cellphone, in accordance with prosecutors.
His physique was left inside his automobile in Fontana and it was found six days later by a passerby who reported {that a} man was sleeping within the automobile, prosecutors stated.
Flores was convicted in April of first-degree homicide, 4 particular circumstances of homicide in the course of the fee of a theft and 4 particular circumstances of a number of murders, in accordance with court docket information.
It’s believed that Roman-Lopez was killed in Mexico in retaliation for the murders. Two different defendants stay on the free and wished in connection to the murders, whereas a fourth defendant is now cooperating with regulation enforcement.
In January 2016, Alejandro Guerrero Ruiz was arrested after he was detained on an immigration maintain in Texas, authorities reported on the time.
