A man with a string of burglary convictions was found guilty Friday of strangling a female employee during a robbery at a store that sold natural supplements in Huntington Park.
The jury also found true a special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a robbery.
The 39-year-old victim — who had been bound and gagged before being strangled with a bedsheet — was found in the back room of the store by customers, according to Deputy District Attorney Steven Schreiner.
Bejarano was also convicted of robbery, assault with a firearm and false imprisonment involving a takeover robbery at a Christian bookstore in Huntington Park 13 days before the killing, along with residential burglary, dissuading a witness and assault with a firearm involving an April 6, 2012, break-in at a home in Huntington Park.
Bejarano — who denied involvement in the crime spree — had previously been convicted of a half-dozen counts of burglary in Texas and California in the 1990s.
He was linked by DNA to Reyes’ killing and the robbery at the Christian bookstore, according to the prosecutor, and was arrested in June 2012.
The District Attorney’s Office opted not to seek the death penalty against Bejarano, who is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sentencing is set for Nov. 5.
— City News Service