The Phoenix man drove to Orange County with a cache of handguns, AK-47 rifles and orders to steal tens of thousands of dollars from two men who wronged his employer.
The man left four men dead in his wake, three of whom were shot multiple times and left inside a burning pickup truck in a residential neighborhood near Chapman University. One of the victims was also stabbed multiple times.
The men are believed to have been killed on November 9, 2015.
The fourth man's decomposing body was not found until several days later inside a car in Fontana, according to the district attorney's office. He was also shot multiple times.
On Wednesday, a Superior Court judge sentenced Raul Gastellum Flores, 33, to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the four murders in what prosecutors describe as a drug cartel-related takeover.
“These murders were calculated to inflict the maximum amount of terror not only on his victims, but also on the neighbors and first responders who had to witness the absolute horror that unfolded in their neighborhood,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a news release. “This was someone who took great pleasure in carrying out these murders.”
The killings were orchestrated by Rosario Adán Román López in retaliation for brothers Edgar and Joel Berrelleza ousting him from his drug trafficking business run by the Sinaloa Cartel, prosecutors say.
Román-López recruited Flores to rob the Berrelleza brothers and kill them if they refused to pay, prosecutors said.
Flores and several accomplices first went to an apartment in Orange, where they confronted Fernando Meza, 20, Edgar Berrelleza, 26, and Antonio Medina, 19, who were inside a vehicle at the time, according to prosecutors. Flores and his group forced their way into the SUV at gunpoint and awaited orders from Roman Lopez.
During a phone conversation, Roman-Lopez told Flores he knew what had to be done, according to court records. Meza and Medina were shot multiple times in the head and chest. Edgar Berrelleza was shot multiple times in the head and back.
After the three men were killed, Flores' accomplices exited the vehicle and he continued driving toward a residential neighborhood in Orange, according to prosecutors.
Authorities said he stopped on Oakmont Street and set the truck on fire while still behind the wheel. Flores jumped out of the moving vehicle and got into a waiting sedan, court records state.
Surveillance video captured the burning truck as it rolled down the street and Flores jumped out.
Shortly after 2 p.m., police arrived at the scene to find bystanders trying to put out the flames with a garden hose. After firefighters extinguished the blaze, police discovered the bodies of two men in the back seat and a third man in the front passenger seat.
According to authorities, Meza's hands were tied and he was stabbed multiple times. The autopsy report shows that soot was found in his lungs, meaning he was still alive when the vehicle was set on fire.
Flores then went to an apartment in Orange where Roman-Lopez and other accomplices were waiting for him along with Joel Berrelleza, 35, Edgar Berrelleza's brother, prosecutors said. Joel Berrelleza was tied up while Flores and the other men stole safes, cash and heroin worth more than $60,000 from the apartment.
Flores and another man forced Berrelleza into his Pontiac, where they shot him three times as they drove away. The men recorded his last breath on a cellphone, according to prosecutors.
Her body was left inside her vehicle in Fontana and was discovered six days later by a passerby who reported a man was sleeping in the vehicle, prosecutors said.
Flores was convicted in April of first-degree murder, four special circumstances of murder during the commission of a robbery and four special circumstances of multiple murders, according to court records.
Roman Lopez is believed to have been killed in Mexico in retaliation for the murders. Two other defendants remain at large and are wanted in connection with the killings, while a fourth defendant is cooperating with authorities.
In January 2016, Alejandro Guerrero Ruiz was arrested after being detained for immigration reasons in Texas, Authorities reported at the time.
