Witness recants part of his statement to police in 2019 Palm Springs quadruple homicide trial
A witness who was among the last to see three of the four victims in the 2019 Palm Springs quadruple homicide case testified on Thursday that his statements to police were not true.
Saul Murillo said in court that he saw Jacob Montgomery, Juan Duarte Raya and Yuliana Garcia the night of Feb. 3, 2019. But he recanted statements he made to police about when he saw them and the identity of a fourth person who was with them.
He previously told police, according to prosecutor filings and officer testimony, that he met with the three around 11:20 p.m. the night of the shootings.
The three victims then left in Raya's green Toyota Corolla with a fourth person, a "heavyset" man who Murillo said was referred to as "Vladis." The three were found shot dead in the car about 20 minutes later on East Sunny Dunes Road in Palm Springs. About a half-mile away, a fourth man, Carlos Campos Rivera, was found shot dead on Canon Drive.
Jose Vladimir Larin-Garcia, 22, was found hiding under a parked truck a couple of blocks away from the crashed 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.
At the start of the trial Monday, Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Samantha Paixao told jurors that Larin-Garcia "executed" the four victims. Over the past several days of testimony, Paixao has questioned witnesses who heard gunfire or saw the car speeding soon before it crashed into a brick wall in front of a home.
Paixao included Murillo's statements in a trial brief filed with the court in October. Murillo, however, took the stand Thursday and said he was not speaking truthfully to the police when he was interviewed days after his "best friends" were killed.
"I told him what I thought I knew, and I don’t believe it was the truth," Murillo said.
Murillo said he hung out with Montgomery, Raya and Garcia every day in the years before they were killed. He said he watched the Super Bowl earlier that day at a Buffalo Wild Wings with Montgomery and Raya. He said he last saw them for the brief meet-up in a cul-de-sac the lived by near Ocotillo Park in Cathedral City. Murillo went home to prepare for an early morning and never saw his friends again, he told jurors.
Murillo didn't dispute in testimony that he saw the three in the car, and that he had paid Montgomery money he owed him. But recanted several other points he had told police during an interview on Feb. 8, 2019.
Murillo testified that the meet-up happened around 9:30 p.m. Paixao said he told police in 2019 that he met them around 11:20 p.m. Murillo testified that he saw a heavy-set, Hispanic male with his three friends and that Garcia told him the man was a friend of Montgomery's and Raya's. Paixao said he told police that the man was explicitly referred to as "Vladis," which she claims is shortened version of Larin-Garcia's middle name Vladimir.
At first, Murillo said that he didn't make these statements to police. He then said he was mistaken, after Paixao provided him with a copy of the transcript of his interview and asked if he wanted to listen to a recording of it.
Thursday's testimony wasn't the first disagreement the prosecution has had with Murillo. Judge Anthony Villalobos ordered him to appear for testimony Thursday after he had previously refused.
After the jury was excused for lunch, the attorneys then discussed Murillo's discrepancies with Villalobos. They agreed they needed more information about his interview with police before questioning him further. Villalobos then ordered Murillo to return for testimony in January.
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This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Witness recants part of his statement to police in 2019 Palm Springs quadruple homicide trial
