A man who allegedly went on a shooting spree in August was charged Thursday with three more murders.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen A. Marcus ordered Alexander Hernandez, 34, of Sylmar, to return to court Jan. 14 for arraignment after defense attorneys said they needed more time to prepare given the additional charges in a case that could now carry the death penalty.
Hernandez had already been charged with the Aug. 21 shooting death of Gilardo Martinez, 48, who was killed while driving his pickup truck to work in the Pacoima area.
The latest murder charges against Hernandez stem from the Aug. 24 killings of Gloria Tovar, Michael Planells and Mariana Franco in separate shootings in the San Fernando Valley.
Tovar, 59, was shot to death in her car in Pacoima while waiting to pick up a friend to go to church, while Planells, 29, was fatally shot while standing in a parking lot in Sylmar. Franco was in a car with her parents in San Fernando when she was shot to death and her parents were injured.
The murder charges include the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and shooting from an occupied vehicle. Prosecutors will decide later whether to seek the death penalty.
The criminal complaint also adds five new attempted murder charges against Hernandez, who was charged in August with two counts of attempted murder involving a couple allegedly fired upon while inside a vehicle in West Hollywood Aug. 22.
Hernandez is now facing 22 counts, including four counts of shooting at an occupied vehicle, three counts of cruelty to an animal, two counts of discharge of a firearm with gross negligence and one count each of possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of ammunition by a felon.
Hernandez is charged with crimes over a five-day period between Aug. 20 and Aug. 24.
The criminal complaint alleges that he 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.
Hernandez was arrested Aug. 24 after he barricaded himself inside a residence in the area of Polk Street and Kismet Avenue in Sylmar for about an hour, police said. He has remained in jail since then.
During a news conference following his arrest, law enforcement authorities dubbed him a “serial killer.”
— City News Service