By Catherine Hamilton
RIVERSIDE, CA – After nearly six days of jury deliberation in a trial that lasted parts of five months, Jose Vladimir Larin-Garcia’s murder trial ended last week with the jury deadlocked on all four counts of murder, resulting in it being declared a mistrial.
The Riverside County District Attorney’s office has decided to retry the case, according to KESQ. Judge Anthony Villabolos set the retrial date for June 17 of this year.
Larin-Garcia is accused of murdering four people the night of Feb. 3, 2019. Three were teenagers found in a Toyota Corolla that Larin-Garcia had apparently been in when it crashed, and the other was an adult found a few streets over from the car. All four suffered gunshot wounds to the head.
The prosecution, led by Deputy District Attorney Samantha Paixao, sought the death penalty if Larin-Garcia was convicted; he faced a special-circumstance allegation for committing multiple murders, according to KESQ.
According to KESQ, the jury split 9-3 in favor of guilt for the murder of the three teenagers, and 8-4 in favor of guilt for the adult. The jury claimed that there was nothing else the defense or prosecution could do to change any of their minds.
A tension in the trial surrounded John Olvera, the man the defense said was the real murderer. There was evidence presented to the jury of Olvera seemingly confessing to the murders over social media messages and in posts, according to this previous Vanguard article.
However, Olvera testified in January, maintaining that he was not the murderer.
The defense was led by private attorney John Dolan, who made a statement to NBC on the mistrial:
“I made a motion after the prosecution’s case to dismiss the case because the evidence was insufficient, and the judge denied that motion,” Dolan said.
He added, “There is no evidence that he personally used a firearm. There was no gunshot residue on his hands, on his clothing or anything else. There’s no gun. There’s no evidence that he was lying in wait as the District Attorney asserted.
“There is no evidence that he actually shot and killed these people, and no motive for killing these people,” Dolan continued. “He knew them.”
