An ex-con from Sylmar was ordered Wednesday to stand trial for allegedly killing five people at random in the San Fernando Valley in 2014 — four of them within less than a week.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen A. Marcus found sufficient evidence to require Alexander Hernandez, 36, to proceed to trial on 31 counts, including five counts of murder and 11 counts of attempted murder, according to Deputy District Attorney Michele Hanisee.
Hernandez is charged with the killings of Sergio Sanchez on March 14, 2014; Gilardo Morales on Aug. 21, 2014; and Gloria Tovar, Michael Planells and Mariana Franco on Aug. 24, 2014, along with the 11 attempted murders — the bulk of which occurred between Aug. 20 and 24, 2014.
The murder counts include the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and shooting from an occupied vehicle. Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek the death penalty.
Hernandez is also facing eight counts of shooting at an occupied vehicle, three counts of cruelty to an animal, two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon and one count each of discharge of a firearm with gross negligence and possession of ammunition by a felon.
The criminal complaint alleges that Hernandez has four prior convictions dating back to 2004, including possession for sale of methamphetamine, possession of a controlled substance with a firearm and possession of a firearm by a felon.
Most of the victims were driving — including home from prom or work, to church and en route to a fishing trip with their kids on Father’s Day — when they noticed a vehicle following them or pulling up alongside.
In most of the cases, the vehicle was Hernandez’s tan Chevrolet Suburban, the prosecutor told the judge at the start of the seven-day hearing. The SUV was identifiable by a hood that didn’t close properly, stickers of “a white skull” and “666” on the back of the vehicle, its custom six-spoked rims and other unique details, Hanisee said.
Housing for a side view mirror found at the Morales crime scene was matched to the Suburban, according to the prosecution.
But more gruesome links were also found by crime scene investigators, including “blood and bits of tissue” from Tovar’s skull — large enough to be “visible to the naked eye” — found in the Suburban, Hanisee told the judge.
Tovar, 59, was shot to death while in her car in Pacoima, waiting to pick up a friend to go to church, according to the prosecutor.
Franco, 22, was driving with her parents when a gunman pulled up alongside in an SUV and said in Spanish, “I am going to kill you,” before shooting Franco in the head. Her mother and father were also struck by bullets, but survived.
Planells, 29, was shot that same day while standing in a parking lot in Sylmar.
Video surveillance footage showed someone in a tan SUV “shoot Mr. Planells and casually drive out of the parking lot,” Hanisee said.
The animal cruelty charges involve three dogs — two of which were killed — at the Pacoima home of a good Samaritan who testified that he had helped Hernandez jump-start his SUV about 10 days earlier.
Hernandez was arrested Aug. 24, 2014, after barricading himself inside a Sylmar residence in the area of Polk Street and Kismet Avenue for about an hour.
Other unsolved shootings were later tied to the defendant, including a May 14, 2014, drive-by attack that left a Chatsworth teenager paralyzed, according to the prosecutor.
The teen had just dropped his girlfriend at home following their high school prom and was waiting for a traffic light to change when a vehicle pulled alongside and a man shot him. One of the bullets struck his spine, causing paralysis, according to Hanisee.
At the start of the hearing last month, a defense attorney told the judge that the case involved “significant and complex mental state questions.”
Hernandez is due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom for arraignment June 15.
— Wire reports