A convicted felon who robbed and gunned down a 61-year-old Nuevo meat market proprietor while haggling with him over the price of a product was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
A Riverside jury in February deliberated two days before convicting Alexander Isaiah Aquino, 22, of killing Abdallah Abushawish of San Jacinto in 2020.
Along with murder, jurors found true a special-circumstance allegation of perpetrating a killing during a robbery, as well as convicted Aquino of armed robbery, assault resulting in great bodily injury, presenting false identification to a peace officer and sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations.
During a hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice on Friday, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Valerie Navarro imposed the sentence required by law.
Aquino’s co-defendants, Isaiah Ralph Lugo, 27, and Charles Richard Trevino, 28, pleaded guilty in November 2021 to felony charges under separate plea deals with the District Attorney’s Office. Lugo admitted carrying a firearm while perpetrating a gang crime, and Trevino admitted an armed robbery allegation. Both men were sentenced to state prison — Lugo to seven years, and Trevino to 12 years.
According to a trial brief filed by the prosecution, the trio went to the Nuevo Meat Market at 29618 Nuevo Road on the morning of Aug. 19, 2020, to buy carne asada for a barbecue.
The defendants were carrying little cash and instead were trying to purchase everything with a state-provided electronic benefits transfer, or EBT, debit card, prosecutors said.
While Lugo sat in his 2013 Chevrolet Malibu, Trevino and Aquino went to buy the meat. After they picked out the carne asada and Abushawish quoted the price, they became quarrelsome.
“The subjects argued about the high price of the meat, but Abushawish told them it was a higher quality meat (and therefore more expensive),” according to the brief.
It said that after he packaged the product for them and placed it on the counter, Aquino pulled a 9mm handgun and opened fire, pumping six rounds into the victim. He died less than an hour later at Riverside University Medical Center in Moreno Valley.
The defendants then fled in the Malibu. Lugo was immediately remorseful, later telling sheriff’s detectives that “Mr. Abushawish did not deserve to be killed.”
Lugo and Trevino dropped Aquino at a fellow Perris Maravilla gang member’s house and then headed into Perris.
Witnesses’ description of the Malibu had been broadcast, and two hours later, patrol deputies spotted it at the intersection of Creekwood Court and Mildred Street, where the two men were stopped and taken into custody without incident.
A year later, Aquino was at Harb Market in the 22700 block of San Jacinto Avenue in Perris, where he encountered a man leaving with a 12-pack of beer. The defendant punched the customer in the face and took his beer and money, court papers said.
That led to the defendant’s immediate arrest, after which detectives connected him to Abushawish’s slaying, according to the prosecution.
Court records show Aquino had a prior felony conviction in another jurisdiction, but the offense wasn’t listed. Trevino had prior convictions for vandalism and grand theft, while Lugo had prior misdemeanor convictions for forgery, identity theft and burglary.