People v. Arreola

Opinion

FRANSON, Acting P. J. The Case

Appellant stands convicted after jury trial of seven felony counts. In counts one and two, the jury found appellant guilty of the first degree murders of Evaristo Reynoso and Luciano Renteria. The jury also found that in the commission of these murders appellant personally used a rifle and committed a multiple murder special circumstance within the meaning of Penal Code section 190.2, subdivision (a)(3).

Counts three through seven involved the attempted murders of five additional victims. The jury also found that appellant used a rifle in the commission of the attempted murders.

[1572]Appellant was sentenced on count one to life in prison without possibility of parole with the rifle use enhancement stayed; on count two, appellant was given the same sentence but it was ordered stayed; on count three, appellant received the upper term of nine years, plus two years for the firearm enhancement. On each of counts four through seven, the court imposed one-third the middle term or twenty-eight months to be served consecutively to the term imposed for count three, and the court stayed the firearm enhancements for those counts.

The Facts

During late February and early March of 1984, Alejandro Hernandez (the victim in count three) and Jose Negrete were involved in a dispute over money. Hernandez said Negrete owed him roughly $3,500 for a telephone bill; the two had recently been roommates. There was evidence that Hernandez also owed Negrete other money, a debt stemming from a heroin deal.

The dispute erupted into violence in the early hours of March 3, 1984. On the previous day, March 2, Isidro Reynoso, his children Odelia, Israel and Evaristo, and son-in-law, Luciano Renteria, had stopped at Hernandez’s rented house on their way from Tijuana to Oregon. They stopped to pick up Gregorio Venegas and Maximilliano and Virgilia Reynoso, who were to accompany them to Oregon. They left again that afternoon, but developed car trouble and returned to Hernandez’s house in the evening. The group went to sleep; Isidro, Odelia, Israel, Evaristo, Luciano and Gregorio all slept in the living room on two sofas and a mattress, and the others slept in another room.

Sometime later, Negrete, Serrano and appellant arrived, asking to see Hernandez. Isidro Reynoso awoke when they entered the house; he overheard one of the others tell Negrete that Hernandez was not at home. The three men then left.