Penalty Phase in Palm Springs Quadruple Homicide Case Begins

INDIO (CNS) – Opening statements were delivered Wednesday in the penalty phase for a Cathedral City man convicted of fatally gunning down four people in Palm Springs more than four years ago — with the prosecution recommending the death penalty and the defense urging jurors to spare the life of the 23-year- old defendant. Jose Vladimir Larin-Garcia was convicted of four counts of first- degree murder for the Feb. 3, 2019, deaths of Jacob Montgomery, 19; Juan Duarte Raya, 18; Yuliana Garcia, 17; and Carlos Campos Rivera, 25. Jurors reached a unanimous guilty verdict in less than one hour and also found true a special- circumstance allegation of multiple murders and sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations. During opening statements Wednesday morning in the penalty phase — in which jurors will recommend whether Larin-Garcia should be sentenced to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole — Deputy District Attorney Samantha Paixao asked jurors to consider the significance of the lives lost, and on families who had to continue their lives without being able to reach out to the victims. "You’re going to be making a personal decision," Paixao told jurors, adding that she will ask them again at the end of the penalty phase to consider that "the only just verdict, the only just imposition of a sentence for Jose Vladimir Larin-Garcia, for what he did, for taking Yuliana Garcia, for taking Carlos Campos Rivera, Jacob Montgomery, and Juan Duarte Raya, is the greater punishment, the punishment of death." Larin-Garcia’s defense attorney, John Dolan, told jurors he was shocked at the unanimous decision to convict the defendant of four murders, but asked jurors to again consider the evidence — that on the night of the fatal shootings, Larin-Garcia was a 19-year-old kid and intoxicated, and that the defendant also has a family who will be affected by the decision. "It’s a sad set of circumstances," Dolan said. "I ask you that you be very careful in your decision. We don’t want five families, with the addition of Mr. Larin-Garcia’s family, to suffer the same circumstances. Please consider the things I’ve discussed with you." At the end of the closing statements, Dolan asked jurors to consider sparing Larin-Garcia’s life. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Anthony Villalobos asked jurors to return Thursday morning, when the witnesses in the penalty phase will testify about the defendant. Prosecutors said Larin-Garcia was sitting in a stopped car with Montgomery, Raya and Garcia on the night of the killings, and first fatally shot Rivera, who was leaning against the stopped vehicle. The driver sped away after that shooting, but prosecutors say Larin-Garcia — who was in the back seat — then fatally shot the trio inside the vehicle to eliminate witnesses to the first killing. Jurors in his first trial deliberated over seven days but were unable to reach a verdict in March of last year. A new jury was sworn in for the retrial on Sept. 26, 2022. Dolan unsuccessfully tried to point blame for the killing on then-15- year-old John Olvera, saying he made incriminating statements and social media posts that amounted to a confession to the killings. Dolan claimed that it was Olvera in the back seat of the car, and that Larin-Garcia jumped out of the moving vehicle to escape the gunfire. Olvera testified in both of Larin-Garcia’s trials, denying culpability in the case, saying his comments amounted to empty boasting or were simply lyrics by rapper Young Boy. "If you weighed the evidence against Mr. Olvera and the evidence against Mr. Larin-Garcia, Mr. Olvera is clearly the person who committed the crime," Dolan said during closing statements of the retrial. "If you’ve got a third person who’s claimed credit for this, who’s a meth user, who was not checked out in the investigation properly and communicates these (confessions) to a young girl … that guy has way more evidence against him than Larin- Garcia." Paixao, however, told the jury that Olvera had nothing to do with the killings, and while law enforcement could have done a better job with the investigation and handling of evidence, it shouldn’t create reasonable doubt for jurors. She said she doesn’t know why Olvera would get on social media and falsely confess to the killings, but said he had done it before when he lied and took credit for a murder at Zelda’s nightclub and when he lied about being in custody "to impress chicks." Paixao insisted that Larin-Garcia — not Olvera — was in the car the night of the killings, and said the defendant was clearly attempting to flee or hide on three occasions following the shootings. She also said the victims were deliberately killed, supporting allegations that the defendant was lying in wait, acted with intent to kill, with deliberation and with premeditation. "Some people are just bad," Paixao told jurors. "Some people just want to kill, and when you kill four people within a matter of minutes, you like to kill." Paixao said that someone who pulls a trigger and shoots each victim two times knows what they’re doing and is acting with intent to kill. Photos were then shown to jurors of each victim from when their injuries were evaluated by an expert as Paixao listed how each victim was fatally injured. "We know he took (Montgomery) by surprise because look at where Jacob was shot (twice on the right side of his face.). Look how he was murdered," Paixao said. "Sitting in the car next to Vladimir Larin-Garcia. There is no other way that this execution happens unless he had a secret plan, then he took them by surprise." During opening statements of the retrial, Paixao told jurors that three of the shooting victims — Montgomery, Raya and Garcia — were found in a green Toyota Corolla that crashed at Sunny Dunes and El Placer roads about 11:40 p.m. the night of the killings, while the fourth victim — Rivera — was found on a street about a half-mile away. Prosecutors contend Larin-Garcia was in the car, first killing Rivera as he stood outside the vehicle, then killing the others because they had witnessed the first shooting. In both of Larin-Garcia’s trials, Dolan created a scene for the jury in which Olvera was in the middle seat of the car shooting the others, and that Larin-Garcia jumped from the vehicle when the killings began. But Paixao argued there was no evidence to suggest a fifth person was in the vehicle, pointing to eyewitness testimony of only four people being present. Paixao said Larin-Garcia was inside the Corolla with the three victims, and that Montgomery was planning to make a drug deal. She said the defendant was in the back seat when he fatally shot Rivera, who was leaning against the car on Canon Drive, south of Theresa Drive. After the shooting, the driver of the Corolla sped off, but Larin- Garcia shot the driver as well as the other two occupants, then jumped from the moving car before it crashed into a parked Jeep at Sunny Dunes and El Placer roads, according to the prosecution. According to Paixao, blood on Larin-Garcia’s shoes and jacket had the DNA of the victims on it, placing him inside the vehicle at the time of the murders. She further argued that bullet casings at the crime scene matched those that were found in the defendant’s bedroom and vehicle, further attaching him to the events. Dolan asserted that the blood spatter identified on Larin-Garcia’s clothing did not prove murder, and there was no search for a gun the prosecution claims he used in the crime, only bullet casings. Larin-Garcia was found by officers hiding under a pickup just blocks from the scene of the Corolla crash. He was taken to Desert Regional Medical Center for treatment of minor injuries but was not arrested. Larin-Garcia left the hospital after being questioned by Palm Springs police, going to a friend’s house. Det. Steve Grissom testified that the friend went to his mother’s home to retrieve fresh clothing and an ID card for the defendant. Later in the day, the friend also bought bandages for Larin-Garcia, along with a Greyhound bus ticket to Florida under the name "Joseph Browning," Grissom testified. At some point that day, Larin-Garcia shaved his head to change his appearance, then the friend drove him to the bus station in Indio, where Larin- Garcia was arrested, Grissom testified. Copyright 2023, City News Service, Inc.