Defendant in Palm Springs homicide trial wanted to rob victim days before, friend testifies
In an ongoing Palm Springs quadruple homicide case, a friend testified on Monday that defendant Jose Vladimir Larin-Garcia had told him only a few days before the killings to "set up," or rob, one of the victims.
Jacob Montgomery, 19, Juan Duarte Raya, 18, and Yuliana Garcia, 17, were found shot dead in a car on East Sunny Dunes Road on Feb. 3, 2019. About a half-mile away, a fourth man, Carlos Campos Rivera, 25, was found fatally shot on Canon Drive.
Larin-Garcia, 22, was found hiding under a parked truck a couple blocks away from the car and was arrested days later while attempting to board a bus to Florida. Larin-Garcia has been charged with four counts of murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
Keven Martinez, 20, a friend of the three victims found in the car as well as Larin-Garcia, took the stand this week, attesting that one night in late January 2019 he and Larin-Garcia were smoking weed when Larin-Garcia told Martinez, "If I ain't get no p****, I'm gonna kill someone tonight."
The two drove around the Desert Highland Gateway Estates neighborhood in North Palm Springs, during which time Larin-Garcia pulled a gun from the backseat of his car, Martinez said, and placed it on his lap. Martinez said he had seen the gun on previous occasions but had not seen Larin-Garcia put it in his lap before. The duo drove around the community for about 10 or 15 minutes but did not see anyone walking around.
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Later that night, still in the car, Larin-Garcia also told Martinez that he should "set up" 19-year-old Montgomery to rob him, the witness told the court. Martinez testified Monday that Larin-Garcia didn't specifically say he wanted to kill Montgomery.
But Martinez said Larin-Garcia "was upset, and the way he was telling me to set him up, the way he wanted to do it, and how he grabbed his gun and was holding onto it while telling me" informed his opinion on whether Larin-Garcia really wanted to kill Montgomery.
At another point in his testimony, Martinez added: "I didn't expect my friends to die."
Last week, Forensic Pathologist Allison Hunt told the jury that another of the four victims, 17-year-old Garcia, was about five weeks pregnant at the time of her death. Hunt said that Garcia's gunshot wounds indicate that she was shot from behind while she was in the driver's seat of the car. Hunt described her death as immediate.
At the start of the trial late last month, Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Samantha Paixao told jurors that Larin-Garcia "executed" the four victims.
"They didn't stand a chance," Paixao told jurors as she described each victim was shot twice by the gunman. "All four were executed. Jose Vladimir Larin-Garcia is the executioner."
John Dolan, Larin-Garcia's defense attorney, said last week that his client has been wrongfully accused of fatal shootings that he witnessed and could have also been a victim of.
The trial at Larson Justice Center in Indio is expected to extend well into the new year. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Anthony Villalobos is presiding over the case. If convicted, Larin-Garcia could face the death penalty.
Previous reporting from Desert Sun journalist Christopher Damien is included in this article.
Amanda Ulrich writes for The Desert Sun as a Report for America corps member. Reach out on Twitter at @AmandaCUlrich.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Defendant in Palm Springs homicide trial wanted to rob victim, friend says
