A 47-year-old man gunned down a man and his girlfriend in their mobile home for no reason in Santa Ana and then returned to burn down the residence, a prosecutor told jurors Tuesday, while the defendant\u2019s attorney said police did \u201csloppy\u201d work on the case and got the wrong suspect.<\/p>\n
Jason Blanchard is charged with two counts of murder and single counts each of arson and possession of a gun by a felon, all felonies. He also faces special-circumstance allegations of multiple murders and enhancements for the discharge of a gun causing death.<\/p>\n
Blanchard is accused of killing 30-year-old Steven Christian Lucero and 33-year-old Jullian Alise Jones on June 10, 2022.<\/p>\n
One of the main witnesses for the prosecution, John Acosta, was given use immunity Monday to testify, meaning what he says in testimony can\u2019t be used against him by prosecutors.<\/p>\n
Acosta testified Tuesday that Jones declared she was pregnant before she was killed. That ignited an argument as jurors were in recess as Blanchard\u2019s attorney wants to try to show that Acosta worked with another man involved in the case to spread the rumor about the pregnancy because it could lead to an attack on Blanchard while in custody.<\/p>\n
Blanchard and Acosta went to the home at 5002 W. McFadden Ave. in the afternoon and confronted Lucero, who had just a towel around his waist, Senior Deputy District Attorney Casey Cunningham said in his opening statement.<\/p>\n
Acosta told police Lucero said, \u201cWho are you?\u201d<\/p>\n
Blanchard drew his gun and said, \u201cI\u2019ll show you who I am,\u201d Lucero told investigators.<\/p>\n
Lucero put his hands up and was backed up into the bedroom where Jones was, and Blanchard then slammed the gun on Lucero\u2019s head, triggering the weapon and appearing to strike Jones, according to police testimony at the preliminary hearing. Acosta ran out and heard Lucero say, \u201cWhat the (expletive) did you do?\u201d police testified at the preliminary hearing.<\/p>\n
Acosta told police he heard more gunshots and the two fled the home in Blanchard\u2019s car, and when Blanchard said he wanted to return to the scene Acosta said he wanted out, police testified.<\/p>\n
Under cross examination from Blanchard\u2019s attorney, Sara Ross of the Orange County Public Defender\u2019s Office, Acosta acknowledged he never told police before the trial that Jones said she was pregnant.<\/p>\n
Cunningham said a woman overheard voices before the shooting and recognized Blanchard\u2019s when she saw him later and spoke with him. She said she overheard another male voice saying, \u201cDid you just kill her?\u201d before hearing two more gunshots, according to Cunningham.<\/p>\n
Blanchard changed his clothes and returned to the mobile home about 10 p.m. and is seen with a gas can on surveillance video, Cunningham said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the video progresses you\u2019ll see the light from the flames,\u201d Cunningham told jurors. Blanchard is seen jogging away from the fire, Cunningham added.<\/p>\n
Lucero sustained a gunshot wound to the back of his head and Jones was shot on the side of the head, Cunningham said.<\/p>\n
Another witness who has a criminal history of drug dealing told investigators she saw Blanchard later at a motel in Orange and when she asked him about a gauze bandage on his neck he told her it was a burn wound, Cunningham said. Then Blanchard admitted to killing two people earlier in the day before sparking the blaze, Cunningham said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe evidence is going to show he went to the residence and was unwelcome,\u201d Cunningham said. \u201cHe pulled out a gun and shot two victims for no reason \u2026 and came back to destroy the evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blanchard\u2019s attorney, Ross, said, \u201cJohn Acosta shot two people. .. We\u2019re here because of \u2026 the sloppy police work of the Santa Ana Police Department.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acosta denied killing the victims under questioning from Ross.<\/p>\n
\u201cNope, I never committed no murders,\u201d Acosta testified.<\/p>\n
The trouble began when a homeless man\u2019s pickup truck was stolen June 8, 2022, Ross said. All of the man\u2019s belongings were in the truck so he wanted to get the vehicle back, Ross said.<\/p>\n
When the man found out Lucero, a friendly acquaintance, had stolen the truck he went to track him down, Ross said. He found out the truck was sold to a man known as Boo Boo, Ross said.<\/p>\n
Blanchard and Acosta, who were also acquaintances of the man, went to Boo Boo\u2019s home in Westminster to discuss the truck, Ross said. They then went to Acosta\u2019s home in Fountain Valley and were hanging out and smoking methamphetamine before Acosta and Blanchard drove to the mobile home park, Ross said.<\/p>\n
Acosta testified he didn\u2019t want to go with Blanchard to the mobile home. He said he wanted to pick up his children from school instead.<\/p>\n
Acosta lived down the street from the mobile home park, he testified. He said Blanchard went into the home first and he followed.<\/p>\n
Jones \u201cwas nervous, I was trying to calm her down,\u201d when Blanchard slammed the gun on Lucero\u2019s head, Acosta testified.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was just as shocked to see her as she was to see me,\u201d Acosta testified. \u201cThat\u2019s when she said, `I\u2019m pregnant.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
He said she asked to put some slacks on before Lucero was struck, Acosta said.<\/p>\n
But Acosta struggled with contradictions between his statements to police in the past and his testimony Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t recall the fine details,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI seen him strike him and the flash going off,\u201d Acosta said of the weapon firing.<\/p>\n
When Ross asked him about his statement to police that he felt a bullet buzz his head, he said, \u201cI just felt (the bullet). I felt something\u2026 I just felt it. I don\u2019t know how to explain it\u2026 like intuition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acosta added, \u201cI didn\u2019t see (Blanchard) pull the trigger\u2026 When he hit him that\u2019s when it went off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ross showed jurors in her opening statement a still from surveillance video that indicated Acosta was running from the scene of the shooting clutching what appears to be a weapon, she said.<\/p>\n
Ross faulted police for not obtaining cellphone data for Acosta\u2019s movements at the time of the shootings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t obtain location data for Acosta,\u201d Ross said. \u201cThey don\u2019t bother to get John Acosta\u2019s social media messages.\u201d<\/p>\n
At one point when questioning him, \u201cThey look through his phone and hand it back to him,\u201d Ross said. \u201cThey never found out he has a burner phone.\u201d<\/p>\n
And investigators, despite a \u201cthorough search\u201d of the crime scene, didn\u2019t find Jones\u2019 body for four days, Ross said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the sloppy police work we\u2019re talking about,\u201d Ross said. \u201cSo they cleared the crime scene and let people come and go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Much of the evidence in the case for prosecutors is \u201ca bunch of crooks and liars,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n
The woman who said she overheard Blanchard\u2019s voice at the shooting \u201cgives police multiple, conflicting stories,\u201d the attorney said.<\/p>\n
The woman who said she spoke with Blanchard at the motel has a \u201clengthy criminal history, including fraud,\u201d Ross added.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd who\u2019s their star witness? That\u2019s John Acosta who\u2019s seen running from the home, pulling out what\u2019s suspiciously looks like a firearm,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n
Acosta also has a criminal history, Ross said.<\/p>\n
A forensics expert is expected to testify that evidence from the crime scene does not match what \u201cJohn Acosta said happened,\u201d Ross said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government\u2019s case is based on sloppy police work and testimony from crooks and liars,\u201d Ross said. \u201cJason Blanchard didn\u2019t kill those people.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 47-year-old man gunned down a man and his girlfriend in their mobile home for no reason in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,78825,10753,2798,410,21777,135,1428],"class_list":["post-163025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-begins","tag-charged","tag-couple","tag-fatally","tag-santa","tag-shooting","tag-trial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}