A steamy morning inside a scorching tub turned lethal for one Southern California couple.
This week, two males affiliated with a infamous avenue gang had been convicted on a number of felony counts for his or her coordinated assault on the pair in Lake Forest in October 2018, authorities mentioned. The ugly ambush didn’t finish till one sufferer had been chased by his residence constructing, and his head pierced with a machete.
Mission Viejo residents Jose Rafael Andrademembreno, 29, and Edwin Diaz, 25, had been convicted by a jury Tuesday of three felony counts every for killing Marco Morales within the early hours of Oct. 1, 2018, the Orange County district legal professional’s workplace mentioned in a information launch.
Morales, and his then-18-year-old girlfriend, Jessica Rodriguez, had been having fun with their residence’s Jacuzzi when, round 3 a.m., Andrademembreno and Diaz got here to execute the deliberate killing, in line with textual content messages proven in court docket.
Morales, who tried to defend himself with a patio chair, was stabbed a number of occasions with a machete-style knife, a weapon of alternative for the road gang MS-13, in line with a Occasions report. Andrademembreno and Diaz allegedly shouted their allegiance to MS-13 — “Mara Salvatrutcha!” — whereas stabbing Morales, the Orange County Register reported. He was stabbed greater than 18 occasions.
Nonetheless, he managed to flee, operating by the constructing and screaming for assist as he bled out, prosecutors say. Andrademembreno and Diaz chased carefully behind with machetes in hand. The pair ultimately caught as much as Morales and started hacking at his arm and head, the blade ultimately piercing his cranium.
Morales’ physique was found by a neighbor hours later, in line with the district legal professional’s workplace. Accompanying the 2 males was Xiomara Berrios, Diaz’s 18-year-old sister, who was courting Andrademembreno on the time. Berrios allegedly stabbed Morales’ girlfriend with a pocketknife. She survived.
Berrios was charged with three felony counts however pleaded responsible to second-degree homicide in change for testifying on the trial, the district legal professional’s workplace mentioned.
After the killing, Andrademembreno and Diaz laughed as they ran again into their getaway automobile, in line with witness testimony.
Morales was not a gang member, prosecutors mentioned. However he bought a .22 rifle for $300 to a boy who bragged about it on-line. This prompted Morales to retrieve the weapon, however he didn’t return the cash, which struck a nerve with Andrademembreno, who knew the boy, the O.C. Register reported.
Orange County sheriff’s investigators arrested Andrademembreno and Diaz that very same day. Officers discovered traces of Morales’ blood on Andrademembreno’s denims and Berrios’ sneakers. Diaz was arrested on Oct. 5. He was discovered washing his bloody garments in a laundromat after studying an article concerning the arrest of his sister and her boyfriend, prosecutors mentioned.
“Essentially the most terrifying monster will not be the one underneath our beds however the human being who finds pleasure in inflicting violence on others,” Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer mentioned in a press release. “The callousness and calculation concerned on this homicide was designed to brutalize their sufferer till his final breath whereas putting concern in everybody who witnessed it.”
Andrademembreno and Diaz had been every convicted of 1 felony rely of first-degree homicide with the particular circumstance of mendacity in wait, one felony rely of conspiracy to commit homicide, and one felony enhancement of non-public use of a lethal weapon.
They face a most sentence of life with out the potential of parole, the district legal professional’s workplace mentioned. Their sentencing listening to will happen Jan. 23, 2026.
