A 44-year-old man was convicted Monday of fatally shooting a man in an argument at an apartment complex in Anaheim five years ago.<\/p>\n
Fernando Padilla Garcia was convicted of first-degree murder with a sentencing enhancement for the discharge of a gun causing death. Jurors, who deliberated for about an hour Wednesday and resumed Monday morning before reaching verdicts, acquitted the defendant of attempted murder with a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a gun.<\/p>\n
Garcia was convicted of killing 34-year-old Francisco Villagomez of Anaheim on April 25, 2021.<\/p>\n
The shooting occurred just before 7:20 p.m. at 213 E. Clifton St., near Anaheim Boulevard.<\/p>\n
Garcia and his wife, Vanessa Salgado, joined two other men in pounding on the metal security screen of the victim\u2019s residence minutes before the shooting, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Mallory Miller.<\/p>\n
The prosecutor said in her closing argument that the group challenged Villagomez to come out for a fight. The group left but the victim\u2019s girlfriend called Villagomez\u2019s family who were about a block away at a store.<\/p>\n
The dispute appeared to be over the woman\u2019s foster daughter running away from home for a short while and they blamed Garcia\u2019s girlfriend, Miller said.<\/p>\n
While two of the women argued, Garcia pulled out a gun and pointed it at the victim\u2019s sister, Miller said. Garcia pulled the trigger but the gun did not fire, Miller said.<\/p>\n
The victim came out of the apartment as this was happening and Garcia turned the weapon on him and opened fire, Miller said. As the victim\u2019s sister tried to help her brother, Garcia walked over to the victim and shot him in the head twice, the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n
Garcia fled to his father\u2019s home in Escondido and was later arrested in San Bernardino, according to Miller.<\/p>\n
Miller argued for a first-degree murder conviction. Jurors were also given the option to consider second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter.<\/p>\n
Miller disputed Garcia\u2019s testimony that the victim was wielding a knife. And after he was shot initially he no longer posed a threat anyway, Miller argued.<\/p>\n
The prosecutor also said the defendant started the fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Garcia had no intention of losing that fight,\u201d Miller argued.<\/p>\n
After he \u201cfled\u201d the scene he went to Escondido and visited a casino, Miller said.<\/p>\n
Defense attorney Terrance Rene David of the Orange County Public Defender\u2019s Office argued his client opened fire to defend himself and his wife against the knife-wielding Villagomez, who, the defendant testified, emerged from the apartment like a \u201craging bull.\u201d<\/p>\n
Garcia said Villagomez threatened to kill him as he advanced on him, according to David. Garcia opened fire again because he thought Villagomez was coming at him again, David argued.<\/p>\n
Villagomez was a \u201cviolent and aggressive person\u201d with a violent criminal history, David argued.<\/p>\n
In November 2012, Villagomez joined with others to \u201cjump on four teens walking to high school,\u201d David said. During that scrum he knifed one of the combatants, David said.<\/p>\n
Villagomez pled guilty to a stabbing in August 2013, according to the attorney.<\/p>\n
Villagomez was arrested in March 2021 sitting in a car with a knife and stun gun in Chino, David said.<\/p>\n
If Garcia wanted to just kill Villagomez he had plenty of other less-volatile situations to do it, David argued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 44-year-old man was convicted Monday of fatally shooting a man in an argument at an apartment complex…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,5685,1491,135],"class_list":["post-430316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-convicted","tag-fatal","tag-shooting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430316","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=430316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}