A convicted felon and two others accused of killing a 27-year-old Perris man on Christmas Eve were charged Thursday with murder and other offenses.
Miguel Angel Villegas, 30, Andrik Avalos Villasenor, 20, and Kassandra Lepe, 21 — all of Hemet — were arrested following a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation into the slaying Saturday of Rafael Morales in Perris.
Villegas and Villasenor were both arrested on Christmas, while Lepe was taken into custody Wednesday.
Along with murder, Villegas and Villasenor are charged with robbery and burglary. Villegas is additionally charged with firearm assault and sentence-enhancing gun use allegations. Lepe is additionally charged with receiving stolen property.
The men were slated to make a joint initial court appearance Thursday afternoon at the Riverside Hall of Justice. Lepe is scheduled to make a solo court appearance Friday at the same courthouse.
She and Villasenor are each being held on $1 million bail — her at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, him at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside. Villegas is being held without bail at the latter.
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Ed Baeza, about 11 p.m. Saturday, the trio were involved in an unspecified confrontation with Morales at a residence in the 300 block of West Seventh Street, near Perris Boulevard.
During the encounter, the victim was shot at least once in the upper body, Baeza said.
Witnesses called 911, and deputies and paramedics converged on the location within minutes, at which point Morales was pronounced dead at the scene.
Baeza said that Central Homicide Unit detectives quickly identified Villegas and Villasenor as two of the alleged assailants. Both were tracked to separate locations the following day and taken into custody without incident.
Lepe was identified later and arrested on East Florida Avenue in Hemet.
Neither she nor Villasenor has documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County. However, Villegas has priors for assault resulting in great bodily injury, auto theft, driving under the influence of drugs and statutory rape, according to court records.