Two men were convicted of murder for the 2020 triple homicide at Golden West High School.
On Tuesday, May 13, Tulare County District Attorney’s Office prosecutors secured guilty verdicts against Cesar Lopez and Mark Aceves, both 24, following a two-week trial.
Tulare County Superior Court Judge Melinda Reed found Lopez and Aceves guilty of three counts of murder, and also found true the special allegations that the crime involved a firearm, that there were multiple murders and the crime was committed during a robbery.
A third defendant — Abraham Molina — is scheduled to be tried separately in January, according to DA officials. The 24-year-old man is accused of pulling the trigger that killed Jose Hernandez-Peña, 19; Isaiah Rule, 18; and Blake Medeiros, 19.
Lopez and Aceves face life in prison without the possibility of parole at sentencing on June 3.
Drug robbery ends in death
The three victims were shot and killed in a drug robbery shortly before midnight on May 5, 2020, in the parking lot of Golden West High School, according to police.
The families of the victims said their loved ones were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Investigators say that while Molina carried out the shootings, Aceves and Lopez acted as “major participants” in the deadly attempted robbery.
The defendants, according to prosecutors, conspired to commit a robbery knowing that a firearm would be used, selected a dark and secluded location without witnesses, planned to use a getaway car, attempted to solicit a getaway driver (who declined to help) and didn’t try to stop the robbery or help the victims after the robbery. They also destroyed evidence.
It would take two years before the killers were caught.
Operation Trailblazer
The defendants were arrested in the large scale 2022 Operation Trailblazer, which involved local and state law enforcement.
The Golden West High School mascot is the trailblazers.
At time of the arrests, Visalia Police Chief Jason Salazar said the operation was an investigation into a drug and weapons trafficking ring.
While the primary focus of the operation was to bring the suspects responsible for the killings to justice, the investigation also uncovered an alleged criminal organization operating across state lines and into Mexico.
Detectives learned that local Sureño gang members and associates were importing guns from Texas and were paying for the weapons with methamphetamine and cocaine supplied by drug trafficking organizations in Mexico.
The weapons and drugs were being shipped through the U.S. Postal Service, according to investigators.
USPS inspectors coordinated with Texas authorities, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office to seize several postal packages. Those operations resulted in 18 firearms and 20 pounds of cocaine being intercepted by law enforcement.
In January 2022, roughly 300 officers from multiple law enforcement agencies served 27 state search warrants, 18 state arrest warrants, five federal search warrants and four federal arrest warrants.
Twenty-seven Sureño gang members were arrested, including the three Visalia homicide suspects.
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Two men convicted in Golden West High School triple murder
Reporting by Sheyanne N Romero, Visalia Times-Delta / Visalia Times-Delta
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
