{"id":506319,"date":"2026-10-24T07:46:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T07:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/506319\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T07:46:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T07:46:45","slug":"3-sentenced-to-life-without-parole-for-murdering-man-in-bakersfield-burying-body-in-arizona","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/506319\/","title":{"rendered":"3 sentenced to life without parole for murdering man in Bakersfield, burying body in Arizona"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) &#8212; Three men convicted of murdering a man in Bakersfield then burying his body in Arizona were sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the Kern County District Attorney&#8217;s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Garret Cole, Juan Toscano and Javier Ontiveros were sentenced in the murder of Taylor Poulin of Long Beach.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Toscano&#8217;s defense sought a motion for a new trial, which was denied Thursday, the DA&#8217;s office told 17 News.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a data-ylk=\"slk:Watch &#039;After Sunrise&#039; on KGET+; Click to learn how to get KGET+ on your smart TV devices;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kget.com\/plus\/\" class=\"promo-link__link\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0Watch &#8216;After Sunrise&#8217; on KGET+; Click to learn how to get KGET+ on your smart TV devices\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The three were tried together. A Kern County jury found the three guilty in August on several charges, including first-degree murder.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">On Sept. 23, 2022, police responded to a report of &#8220;suspicious circumstances&#8221; in the 300 block of Real Road and found signs of foul play.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">When Poulin and his friend Edwin Menendez entered the home on Real Road, Toscano and Cole drew guns, according to the prosecutor.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Poulin was shot and buried in a desert area in Arizona. Menendez managed to escape.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Cole, Ontiveros and two other men drove to Arizona to get rid of the body while Toscano stayed behind to clean up the scene, according to officials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Menendez told investigators he and Poulin drove from the Los Angeles area to Bakersfield to buy Lean, a drug mixed with promethazine and codeine, a prosecutor said. He was reportedly held at gunpoint while Poulin was killed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">According to the prosecutor, the three defendants set up a drug deal in 2022 to rob Poulin and Menendez. Toscano reportedly said Poulin owed him $20,000.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The defendants&#8217; defense attorneys argued Poulin planned to rob the three and was the first to pull a gun. They said he got shot while he was wrestling for the gun on the ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<a data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;link&quot;,&quot;yLinkElementType&quot;:&quot;article_link&quot;}\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kget.com\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) &#8212; Three men convicted of murdering a man in Bakersfield then burying his body in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-506319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506319","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=506319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}