Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 11 to 18 of 18

Thread: Jesse Perez Torres - California Death Row

  1. #11
    Senior Member CnCP Legend
    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Posts
    2,243
    Final Arguments in MoVal Abduction-Murder Trial Postponed to Monday

    By City News Service

    With rebuttal testimony taking longer than expected, closing statements were postponed Thursday in the trial of a man accused of abducting and killing a 17-year-old Moreno Valley girl more than eight years ago.

    Jesse Perez Torres, 42, could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder and a special circumstance allegation of killing in the course of a kidnapping for the July 2010 death of Norma Angelica Lopez.

    The defense called its last witness Wednesday, two weeks after the prosecution concluded its presentation of evidence in the monthlong trial. However, prosecutors had five rebuttal witnesses testifying about forensic evidence, prompting Riverside County Superior Court Judge Bernard Schwartz to drop his original plan to have the two sides make final arguments to jurors before Friday, when trial proceedings generally are not held in his courtroom at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

    Schwartz told the prosecution and defense to be prepared for closings Monday morning. If Lopez is found guilty, his trial will proceed to the penalty phase. The prosecution has argued that trace DNA fragments gleaned from Norma's broken earring and garments proved that Torres was her killer.

    No DNA matches were initially found in the state's Combined DNA Index System, better known as CODIS. But Deputy District Attorney Michael Kersse said that changed by September 2011, when potential matches were identified out of the 1.8 million individuals whose biological identities were then in the database.

    The prosecutor alleged that Torres was the best match, culminating in his detention by sheriff's detectives, who found him at a Long Beach property owned by his mother. The defendant had been required to provide DNA samples after a domestic violence incident in early 2011. At the outset of the trial, defense attorney John Dorr repudiated the prosecution's contention that the DNA presented a substantive link between his client and the crime.

    "There were 24 potential DNA matches," Dorr told the jury. "You will hear nothing about the other 23, who they are, or their criminal backgrounds."

    The attorney criticized the handling of the forensic clues collected from the victim's earring, suggesting it had been contaminated by evidence technicians. Riverside County's chief pathologist, Dr. Mark Fajardo, testified that he could only speculate as to exactly how Norma was killed, though he eventually formed an opinion that it was homicidal violence.

    "There are a number of ways to kill someone without leaving a mark," the witness testified. "Strangulation or asphyxiation is possible."

    Fajardo said that the girl's remains were in a degraded state after being left under a tree along Theodore Street, at the eastern edge of Moreno Valley, amid sweltering heat. She was found in the early afternoon of July 20, 2010, by a man on a tractor, doing landscaping. Photos displayed by the prosecution showed the teen head down, nude from the waist up, wearing blue jeans but no shoes.

    Kersse told jurors that Torres could easily have observed Norma from his then-residence at 13173 Creekside Way, watching her whenever she left Valley View High School, where she was taking a morning biology class for the summer.

    Every day that she'd left the campus for several weeks, she had been with her boyfriend.

    But on July 15, 2010, he was behind schedule, and she set off on her own. She headed south on Creekside, east to Quail Creek Drive, then south again on Mill Creek Road before crossing an open field toward Cottonwood Avenue, where her older sister, Sonia Lopez, and friends gathered almost daily that summer.

    Kersse played a security surveillance videotape from a house looking down on Creekside, and the recording captured the last images of Norma alive, walking the route. The tape also showed, moments later, a green SUV cruising slowly in the direction that she was walking, shortly after 10 a.m. The vehicle re- appeared less than five minutes later, speeding away from the area.

    According to the prosecution, Torres owned a green Nissan Xterra at the time. The victim's school binder, purse and broken earring were found about noon strewn on the ground in the field near Cottonwood. Five days later, her remains were discovered in the olive tree grove.

    Torres denied any involvement in the kidnap-murder, telling detectives shortly after his arrest that he was exercising when the teen was snatched. He's being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside.

    https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/l...506863521.html

  2. #12
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Closing arguments set in trial of man accused of abducting, killing MoVal Girl

    By Jake Ingrassia
    KESQ News

    RIVERSIDE, Calif.- - Closing statements are scheduled Thursday morning in the trial of a man accused of abducting and killing a 17-year-old Moreno Valley girl more than eight years ago.

    Jesse Perez Torres, 42, could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder and a special circumstance allegation of killing in the course of kidnapping for the July 2010 death of Norma Angelica Lopez.

    The defense rested its case this morning, two weeks after the prosecution concluded its presentation of evidence in the monthlong trial.

    Riverside County Superior Court Judge Bernard Schwartz is slated to hear motions on instructions to the jury Thursday morning before the two sides make their final arguments, which are expected to last well into the afternoon.

    If Lopez is found guilty, his trial will proceed to the penalty phase.

    The prosecution has argued that trace DNA fragments gleaned from Norma's broken earring and garments proved that Torres was her killer.

    No DNA matches were initially found in the state's Combined DNA Index System, better known as CODIS. But Deputy District Attorney Michael Kersse said that changed by September 2011, when potential matches were identified out of the 1.8 million individuals whose biological identities were then in the database.

    The prosecutor alleged that Torres was the best match, culminating in his detention by sheriff's detectives, who found him at a Long Beach property owned by his mother. The defendant had been required to provide DNA samples after a domestic violence incident in early 2011.

    At the outset of the trial, defense attorney John Dorr repudiated the prosecution's contention that the DNA presented a substantive link between his client and the crime.

    "There were 24 potential DNA matches,'' Dorr told the jury. "You will hear nothing about the other 23, who they are, or their criminal backgrounds.''

    The attorney criticized the handling of the forensic clues collected from the victim's earring, suggesting it had been contaminated by evidence technicians.

    Riverside County's chief pathologist, Dr. Mark Fajardo, testified that he could only speculate as to exactly how the teen was killed, though he eventually formed an opinion that it was homicidal violence.

    "There are a number of ways to kill someone without leaving a mark,'' the witness testified. "Strangulation or asphyxiation is possible.''

    Fajardo testified that the girl's remains were in a degraded state after being left under a tree along Theodore Street, at the eastern edge of Moreno Valley, amid sweltering heat.

    She was found in the early afternoon of July 20, 2010, by a man on a tractor, doing landscaping. Photos displayed by the prosecution showed the teen head down, nude from the waist up, wearing blue jeans but no shoes.

    Kersse told jurors that Torres could easily have observed Norma from his then-residence at 13173 Creekside Way, watching her whenever she left Valley View High School, where she was taking a morning biology class for the summer.

    Every day that she'd left the campus for several weeks, she had been with her boyfriend. But on July 15, 2010, he was behind schedule, and she set off on her own. She headed south on Creekside, east to Quail Creek Drive, then south again on Mill Creek Road before crossing an open field toward Cottonwood Avenue, where her older sister, Sonia Lopez, and friends gathered almost daily that summer.

    Kersse played a security surveillance videotape from a house looking down on Creekside, and the recording captured the last images of Norma alive, walking the route.

    The tape also showed, moments later, a green SUV cruising slowly in the direction that she was walking, shortly after 10 a.m. The vehicle re-appeared less than five minutes later, speeding away from the area. According to the prosecution, Torres owned a green Nissan Xterra at the time.

    The victim's school binder, purse, and broken earring were found about noon strewn on the ground in the field near Cottonwood. Five days later, her remains were discovered in the olive tree grove.

    Torres denied any involvement in the kidnap-murder, telling detectives shortly after his arrest that he was exercising when the teen was snatched.

    Torres is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside.

    https://www.kesq.com/news/crime/clos...irl/1052600919
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  3. #13
    Senior Member CnCP Legend
    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Posts
    2,243
    Norma Lopez murder case: Prosecutors say suspect was predator who was 'watching, waiting and lusting'

    By Leticia Juarez
    KABC-TV

    RIVERSIDE, Calif. (KABC) -- Final arguments in the monthlong capital murder trial in the 2010 slaying of 17-year-old Norma Lopez came to an end on Monday.

    The man accused in the teen's death is Jesse Torres. The prosecution described Torres as a predator who was "watching, waiting and lusting" after Lopez as she walked to and from summer school classes to a friend's home.

    The Riverside County District Attorney's office relied heavily on DNA evidence collected from a torn earring Lopez had been wearing along with samples taken from her purse, jeans and underwear.

    Deputy District Attorney Michale Kersse told jurors that DNA evidence led to Torres.

    The defense called the DNA evidence flawed, adding that one process used to test the DNA evidence collected was "junk science."

    Defense attorney John Dorr told jurors that at the time, the murder case was the biggest Riverside County had ever seen and that law enforcement was under pressure to solve the case.

    Dorr called Torres a convenient suspect because he was one of 24 profiles that matched the partial DNA evidence, and he lived in the neighborhood where Lopez went missing.

    He also told jurors the most important part of the case were the three eyewitnesses who reported seeing a green SUV tearing out of the dirt field Lopez would have been walking through at the same time. Dorr said when it was no longer convenient, investigator disregarded that portion of their investigation. Torres drove a brown Nissan Xterra.

    During the prosecution's rebuttal of the defense's closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Kevin Beechum delivered a scathing response calling out the number of coincidences. He then directed his final remarks by turning to Torres and stating, "you left her like trash under that tree... we know you are guilty."

    The jury will now decide if circumstantial DNA evidence in the case is enough to find Torres guilty.

    https://abc7.com/norma-lopez-murder-...-says/5184561/

  4. #14
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Man found guilty of first-degree murder for killing of Norma Lopez

    DA will seek death penalty

    By Sam Benson Smith
    KESQ News

    RIVERSIDE, Calif. - UPDATE 1:45 PM : Jesse Torres has been found guilty of first-degree murder for the killing of Norma Lopez.

    A verdict has been reached in the trial of a man accused of abducting and killing a 17-year-old Moreno Valley girl, according to a release issued by the Riverside County District Attorney's Office.

    Jesse Perez Torres, 42, is accused of kidnapping and killing Norma Lopez in the summer of 2010.

    Torres could have faced the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder with a special circumstance allegation of killing in the course of a kidnapping, however, a moratorium has been placed on the death penalty in the state by an executive order signed by Governor Gavin Newsom Wednesday.

    In the District Attorney's Office's release on the verdict, it was stated that DA Mike Hestrin will seek the death penalty in this case.

    "The victim, 17-year-old Norma Lopez, was kidnapped on July 15, 2010, as she walked from summer school at Valley View High School in Moreno Valley to a friend’s house. Five days later, her body was found in a dirt field about three miles away," read the DA's release. "Defendant Jesse Perez Torres was later identified as the suspect and was charged in October 2011 by our office with Norma’s murder."

    https://www.kesq.com/news/verdict-re...een/1058422841
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  5. #15
    Senior Member CnCP Legend
    Join Date
    Oct 2018
    Posts
    2,243
    ‘He was always there for me,’ testifies sister of man who murdered Norma Lopez of Moreno Valley

    By Brian Rokos
    The Press-Enterprise

    Jesse Perez Torres was a father figure who inspired his brothers and sisters, installed good character and organized family outings, his siblings and a friend testified Tuesday, March 19, while acknowledging they have almost never visited him in jail since his 2011 arrest for murder.

    Those witnesses, called by the defense, wrapped up testimony in the penalty phase of the trial of Torres, who on March 13 was convicted of killing 17-year-old Norma Angelica Lopez of Moreno Valley. A special-circumstances enhancement of kidnapping prompted the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office to seek the death penalty for Torres.

    The seven-man, five-woman Riverside County Superior Court jury will hear closing arguments Wednesday morning that are expected to take about an hour. They could begin deliberations on whether to recommend one of two choices — the death penalty or life in prison without parole — by midday. Judge Bernard J. Schwartz will impose the sentence.

    Torres, 42, is being withheld bail.

    Although Torres lived in Moreno Valley at the time of Lopez’s July 2010 slaying, witnesses said Tuesday that Torres has strong ties to Long Beach. Among them, he attended Millikan High, studied welding at Long Beach City College and lived with brothers, sisters and her mother in Long Beach.

    A day after prosecutors elicited testimony from Lopez’s family on the repercussions of her death on them, defense attorney Darryl Exum on Tuesday sought to draw out statements from his witnesses that Torres lived a life worth sparing.

    Torres’ father was almost never around, siblings said.

    He was “in and out,” said Anthony Torres, Jesse’s younger brother by 10 years. “It was just a hi and bye.”

    So it was Jesse who took on the planning of movie nights and barbecues. Jesse would also calm his brother when he became angry “and pretty much tried to install good character,” Anthony said. He also said under cross-examination from Deputy District Attorney Kevin Beecham that he never visited his brother in jail.

    A half-sister, Nancy Fonseca Perez, said Jesse signed her up for kickboxing and karate lessons when she was bullied.

    “I would like my 4-month-old to develop a relationship with the person who raised me when he didn’t have to,” she said.

    The most emotional testimony came from a sister, Rosa Torres Perez. She said Torres picked up his siblings at school, encouraged them to get an education and cooked meals.

    “As a child, he was always there for me,” Perez told Exum while choking up. “We never felt like we were going to go far” moving frequently to a succession of one- and two-bedroom apartments in Long Beach. But with Torres’ encouragement, Perez joined the military and earned a master’s degree in social work. She considered her brother a protector of the family. While offering condolences to Lopez’s family, she said Torres’ death would be difficult on hers.

    “I’ve been trying to ignore that this is happening. There’s a possibility I might not see him again,” Perez said, crying and breathing hard. “I’m hoping for the best. We need him, even if it’s seeing him and talking to him through the glass (in prison).”

    Perez told Beecham that she visited her brother in jail Sunday but admitted that her previous visit was in 2011.

    “I was a coward and painted a picture as if nothing was happening,” she said.

    An ‘incredibly’ poor reader

    Exum had previously said that Torres should not be put to death because he is “intellectually disabled,” and Perez testified that Torres would ask her to read or explain things to her.

    An English teacher who tutored Torres 28 years ago testified that the summer before his 10th-grade year, he tested at a kindergarten reading level.

    “He really wanted to learn,” Rebecca Schuler said. “What stuck out in my mind was an incredibly low level that was unusual.”

    Nevertheless, witnesses testified, Torres passed a test to become a certified welder on the first attempt and at one point was making $35 per hour. Torres would call Schuler a couple of times each year until about 2008 to update her on such milestones in his life.

    “We joked that he was making more than I was,” Schuler said.

    https://www.dailybulletin.com/2019/0...moreno-valley/

  6. #16
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2013
    Location
    Toronto, Ontario, Canada
    Posts
    20,875
    Jury recommends death penalty for Norma Lopez's killer

    By Jake Ingrassia
    KESQ News

    RIVERSIDE, Calif. - A jury has recommended the death penalty for Jesse Torres, a 42-year-old man convicted last week for the abduction and murder of 17-year-old Norma Lopez.

    Final arguments wrapped Wednesday morning. The jury deliberated for approximately an hour. Torres will return to court on April 12 to litigate whether or not Torres will be eligible for an Atkins hearing.

    During the Atkins hearing, Torres' defense can make an argument that he is ineligible for the death penalty due to intellectual disabilities. The Eighth Amendment disallows the disabled people from being sentenced to death, as it is considered cruel and unusual punishment.

    https://www.kesq.com/news/final-argu...irl/1061051773
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  7. #17
    Senior Member CnCP Legend Mike's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2015
    Location
    Pennsylvania
    Posts
    4,795
    Norma Lopez’s killer sentenced to death for 2010 slaying of Moreno Valley teen

    By BEAU YARBROUGH
    The Orange County Register

    A one-time welder was sentenced to death in a Riverside courtroom on Friday, Dec. 4, for the murder of Moreno Valley teenager Norma Angelica Lopez 10 years ago.

    Prosecutors said Jesse Perez Torres, 44, waited to kidnap his victim on her way home alone.

    “The killing of Norma Lopez and the dumping of her body like a piece of garbage can only be described as disgusting,” Riverside County Superior Court Judge Bernard J. Schwartz said before sentencing Torres. “The defendant displays an utter disregard for human life and is a threat to society. No question about that.”

    The death of Lopez, 17, shocked the Inland Empire after she disappeared walking home from summer school at Valley View High in July 2010. Friends and family scoured the area after Lopez failed to show up at her friend’s house, finding only her school binder, purse and a broken earring.

    Five days later, her topless body was found in a grove of olive trees about 3 miles from where she had disappeared.

    The investigation stalled out. But in September 2011, DNA lifted from her earring was matched against a sample taken from Torres after a domestic violence arrest. Video footage also showed Torres’ green SUV doing a U-turn after Lopez had walked down the street where she vanished.

    Torres lived along the route Lopez normally walked with her boyfriend after school. Prosecutors theorized that Torres waited until a day when Lopez walked alone to kidnap and kill her. Torres moved back to Long Beach, where he had graduated high school, several weeks after she was killed.

    Challenges to evidence and changes in defense teams and prosecutors meant it took eight years before the case went to trial in 2019.

    Lopez’s cause of death was never determined, due to the state her body was found in.

    Choking on tears, Lopez’s sister Sonia read a letter from their mother to the court on Friday.

    “Without Norma, my house was filled with pain and sadness,” their mother wrote. “In my house, there’s no happiness.”

    Family members suffered deep depression and fear of leaving the house, she wrote. That pain continues, even a decade after Lopez’s death.

    “They say time heals everything, but it doesn’t,” Sonia Lopez said.

    On March 13, 2019, jurors found Lopez guilty of murder with a special circumstance of kidnapping, making him eligible for the death penalty. It took the seven-man, five-woman jury only an hour to decide on the death penalty.

    “People don’t just live on this planet alone,” Schwartz said. “They have family members, friends. When someone is taken from them, it’s tragic.”

    Lopez’s youngest sister was confused about where her sister had gone. She wondered if Lopez had left the family because she didn’t love them.

    The youngest sister “offered the coins in her piggy bank to bring her sister back,” Schwartz said.

    And so, Schwartz upheld the sentence recommended by the jury: “It is hereby ordered that you shall receive the death penalty,” he said.

    If Torres had any reaction to the death sentence on Friday, it was difficult to tell, between the white mask he wore because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has ripped through the nation’s prisons and jails, along his heavy glasses, and his wrists being chained to his waist.

    Torres has an IQ of 68, Schwartz noted during the sentencing hearing. He was also largely raised without his father, who spent time in prison.

    Family members and attorneys declined to comment further outside the courtroom after the hearing.

    Despite Schwartz’s Friday death sentence, Lopez is a long way from execution at San Quentin State Prison. Death sentences in California are automatically appealed, and California has not executed a death row prisoner since 2006. Gov. Gavin Newsom has also issued a moratorium on executions.

    https://www.ocregister.com/2020/12/0...f-17-year-old/
    "There is a point in the history of a society when it becomes so pathologically soft and tender that among other things it sides even with those who harm it, criminals, and does this quite seriously and honestly. Punishing somehow seems unfair to it, and it is certain that imagining ‘punishment’ and ‘being supposed to punish’ hurts it, arouses fear in it." Friedrich Nietzsche

  8. #18
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2013
    Location
    Newport, United Kingdom
    Posts
    2,454
    Torres entered California's death row on 1/8/21.

    https://www.cdcr.ca.gov/capital-puni...ecure-request/
    "How do you get drunk on death row?" - Werner Herzog

    "When we get fruit, we get the juice and water. I ferment for a week! It tastes like chalk, it's nasty" - Blaine Keith Milam #999558 Texas Death Row

Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •