Cannabis dispensary owner and manager convicted in student's murder

Salvador Hernandez
·2 min read
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LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 03: A billboard in memory of Juan Carlos Hernandez at the corner of Florence and Western Avenues, down the street from where he use to work at VIP Collective marijuana dispensary on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021 in Los Angeles, CA. Yajaira Hernandez's 21-year-old son, Juan Carlos Hernandez, went to work one afternoon in September 2020 and never came home. She looked for her son for nearly two months, until the police told her they'd found his remains in the Mojave desert, 150 miles from where he was last seen at his job at a marijuana dispensary in South Los Angeles. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
A billboard posted in memory of Juan Carlos Hernandez in February 2021 in Los Angeles a few blocks away from the marijuana dispensary where he worked. (Gary Coronado/Los Angeles Times)

A Los Angeles jury convicted a marijuana dispensary owner and manager of murder Monday in the killing of a 21-year-old college student who was an employee inside the shop.

Video recovered by police showed the dispensary's manager, Ethan Kedar Astaphan, choking employee Juan Carlos Hernandez inside the dispensary on the night of Sept. 22, 2020. Weijia Peng, the dispensary owner, could be seen closing the back door of the shop, then watching as Hernandez's body went still.

On Monday, a jury in Los Angeles County Superior Court convicted Astaphan and Peng of first-degree murder.

Attorneys for Astaphan and Peng did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A student at El Camino College at the time, Hernandez worked at the dispensary, VIP Collective LA, for six months under the table to help pay for his tuition and cover the cost of potentially transferring to USC. But the 21-year-old disappeared on Sept. 23, 2020, prompting a frantic search by his family that spanned most of Southern California.

Two months after his disappearance, police located his body buried in the Mojave Desert.

Read more: A mother's search for missing son leads to dark world of a marijuana dispensary

Jurors deliberated for less than three hours Monday, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.

The marijuana dispensary was located in the 8100 block of Western Avenue; Hernandez had worked there for about six months before his murder.

During the trial, prosecutors asserted that Peng and Astaphan suspected that Hernandez was stealing money and marijuana from the dispensary, citing WhatsApp messages between the two defendants.

Then late on Sept. 22, 2020, prosecutors alleged, video showed Astaphan attacking Hernandez and Peng injecting the 21-year-old with a fatal dose of ketamine.

The two then took his body to the desert. They were arrested two months later, after law enforcement recovered deleted surveillance video from the dispensary showing the attack.

A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for April 25, according to court records.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.