domingo, 30 de diciembre de 2012

Murders, shootings and violent assaults among many cases heard this year - Hanford Sentinel

While crime remains a continuous problem here in Kings County, justice never sleeps. Many people were convicted and sentenced this year in crimes ranging from murder and shootings to homicide plots and the horrific torture of a roommate with gasoline.

Here are some of those stories:

Gang member convicted in 2009 murder case

HANFORD — A young gang member, who gunned down his rival at the El Dorado Mobile Home Park in 2009, was found guilty in January of first-degree murder.

Salvador Parra Rodriguez was convicted in the shooting death of 19-year-old Jose Manuel Aguirre, Kings County's seventh and final homicide that year.

Authorities described the drive-by shooting as the final link in a chain of violence that stretched back to when the suspect and victim attended high school.

Police said Aguirre was shot to death while visiting his girlfriend at the El Dorado trailer park.

The jury's guilty verdict left Rodriguez with a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Man gets 11 years for attempted murder of ex

LEMOORE — The Iowa man who came to town with plans to rape and murder his former flame was sentenced in March to 11 years to life in prison.

Eric Mitchell Youngblut pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree murder for the attack that happened the year prior.

Police say Youngblut broke into his ex-girlfriend's home in Lemoore and attacked her with a stun gun. His plan — as outlined in a detailed notebook investigators later recovered — was to subdue her, drain her bank accounts, kill her children in front of her and burn the house down with her inside.

But the victim managed to fend off Youngblut and escape to her front yard. Youngblut was captured by police officers a short distance away.

In February, he pleaded guilty, and as part of his plea, he will serve a stipulated four-year, four-month sentence before he begins serving his seven-years-to-life term.

84 years-to-life sentence in CHP shooting

HANFORD — The man convicted of trying to gun down a California Highway Patrol officer in 2010 was sentenced in April to 84 years-to-life in prison.

The punishment for Lanard Kitchens, 35, includes a 40 years-to-life sentence, with an added 44 years for felony counts, including for robbing a woman at gunpoint at the Hanford Bargain Center.

Officer John Tyler pulled Kitchens over on May 9, 2010. As the officer approached the driver's side door, Kitchens leaned out and shot at him three times.

All three bullets missed, but Tyler was close enough to suffer gunpowder burns across his face and a loss of hearing on his right side.

Still, Tyler pursued and managed to arrest Kitchens after a 20-mile high-speed chase.

When his case finally went to trial, Kitchens dismissed his attorney and represented himself for about an hour before being reprimanded for his outbursts toward the jury.

After five days of testimony and a day of deliberations, the jury brought back guilty verdicts on all 12 felony counts filed against him — including attempted murder of a peace officer, assault with a semi-automatic firearm and transportation of a controlled substance for sale.

Suspect turns himself in, convicted for his wife's murder

CORCORAN — A Corcoran man accused of stabbing his wife to death, then turning himself in, was found guilty in May of first-degree murder.

Jurors deliberated for an hour and a half before returning a verdict on what would have been the victim's 69th birthday.

The killing made headlines in June when Aguilar walked into the Corcoran Police Department with blood on his shirt and confessed.

Aguilar told an animal services officer — the only available Spanish speaker at the time — that he'd argued with his wife, then stabbed her.

Officers found Herminia Gamez, 68, on the floor of their shared home, already dead. She had stab wounds on her chest and lower back.

Manuel Aguilar, 53, was sentenced to the maximum allowed punishment in the case: 25 years-to-life in prison.

Man pleads to voluntary manslaughter in shooting of mother's lover

HANFORD — The Rancheria man who pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter for shooting his mother's boyfriend was sentenced in August to 10 years in prison.

Authorities said Monte Resendez entered his mother's home on Feb. 28, 2011 and shot Marcelino Sanchez, in part because of Sanchez's relationship with Resendez's mother.

After the shooting, Resendez fled the area and dodged authorities for two days until his lawyer, Carl Faller, negotiated his surrender.

Resendez's case went through many hurdles in the two years following Sanchez's murder, including a mistrial that led prosecutors to change the charges filed against the 25-year-old suspect.

Members of Sanchez's family asked the court to give Resendez the maximum 21-year sentence possible. Judge Thomas DeSantos instead opted for the lesser 10-year sentence and offered no explanation, leaving members of Sanchez's family visibly distraught as they left the courtroom.

The sentence includes six years in prison for voluntary manslaughter and another four years for the gun enhancement.

Pair who shot at law enforcement convicted in 2010 incident

HANFORD — Two men accused of opening fire on law enforcement and wounding a Hanford police officer during a getaway in 2010 were each sentenced in August.

Juan Carlos Aguirre, 26, and Alberto Zeferino Hernandez, 27, both pleaded guilty to charges of attempted murder, assault on a peace officer and participating in a criminal street gang for an incident that happened on Nov. 20, 2010.

Hernandez now faces a total sentence of 24 years and eight months. Aguirre, who entered a guilty plea to numerous other charges including an extra count of attempted murder, was sentenced to 79 years and eight months in prison.

The shoot-out in 2010 left Hanford police Officer Christifer Barker with permanent nerve damage to his right leg, according to the Kings County District Attorney's Office, and forced him to leave work for five weeks while recovering.

Women pleads guilty in gasoline attack on roommate

HANFORD — More than a year after she doused her roommate with gasoline and lit her on fire, Chasety Reynolds pleaded guilty in September to attempted murder.

The 33-year-old's admission of guilt came after a heart-wrenching day in court with testimony from the victim's doctor.

Victoria de la Fuente, 46, suffered severe and "catastrophic burns" to more than half her body. Because of her wounds, de la Fuente lost her right eye and will remain scarred for the rest of her life.

Police say the attack happened on Sept. 2, 2011. Reynolds and de la Fuente, who were roommates living in a home in Lemoore, had been arguing all afternoon. Reynolds splashed the other woman with gasoline and pulled out a cigarette lighter. She set her on fire, then sat down to watch her burn on the floor of their garage.

Paramedics rushed de la Fuente to Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno. She underwent surgery 12 times and had to receive skin grafts to cover the burned tissue.

Testimony only lasted a single day before Reynolds called it quits. She pleaded to first-degree attempted murder and one count of aggravated mayhem with great bodily injury. She was sentenced to 12 years-to-life in October.

Jury returns with guilty verdict in Lacey Park homicide

HANFORD — A 19-year-old was convicted in December of shooting a man to death during a gang attack at Lacey Park one year ago.

Jurors found Jose Alberto Perales guilty of first-degree murder and participating in a criminal street gang. The verdict came after a week of testimony and more than four hours of deliberations.

The shooting on July 14, 2011 claimed the life of 26-year-old Aaron Garcia, a rival gang member.

Investigator Richard Pontecorvo said Perales, a member of the East Side Dukes Sureño gang, specifically targeted Garcia.

Another suspect drove him to the park in a van around 4:30 p.m. Police said Perales chased after Garcia, shooting him once in the back. He then fled the scene in the van.

Police looked for the suspect for two months, before tracking him to the small town of Winton and arresting him.

Perales' case went to trial on Dec. 5 and lasted about a week. He faces a sentence of life without the possibility of parole when he returns to court on Jan. 11.

The reporter can be reached at 583-2425 or jjohnson@HanfordSentinel.com.

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