The prosecution is slated to rest next week in the trial of a probationer accused of choking his girlfriend to death and dumping her remains along the boundary separating Riverside and Orange counties, where they have yet to be found.
Hugo Lionel Hernandez, 46, of Oceanside, is charged with murder for the 2019 slaying of 33-year-old Katherine Mary Neitzke of Romoland.
Trial testimony began last week, and the prosecution has called multiple witnesses, the last of which is slated to take the stand Tuesday.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Steven Counelis directed jurors to return to the Riverside Hall of Justice Tuesday morning. Closing arguments may go forward as early as Wednesday.
Hernandez is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside.
According to an arrest warrant declaration filed by sheriff’s investigators in January 2022, Hernandez and Neitzke were in a dating relationship for just under a month when he allegedly killed her on July 26, 2019.
At the time, Neitzke was residing in a barn that had been converted to living space at 29615 Mapes Road, just north of Highway 74 and south of Perris. Hernandez was staying with her.
Neitzke was reported missing by her sister-in-law in the late summer of 2019, and the case was initially treated as a missing person investigation. However, within a few months, detectives began to suspect foul play, and a homicide investigation was initiated.
A friend of the victim, Andrea Bailey, told detectives she had received a “frantic call” from Neitzke on the night of July 25, 2019, during which the victim asked Bailey to pick her up at the Mapes property. However, Neitzke then told her friend that she would call her back, but never did, according to the affidavit.
In the ensuing months, detectives spoke with other witnesses, culminating in a conversation with Edilberto “Eddie” Avena, who had been dating the defendant’s sister, Janet Hernandez, at the time of Neitzke’s disappearance. Avena ultimately told sheriff’s Investigator Travis Gilbert that Hugo Hernandez had enlisted his assistance “to get rid of” the woman’s remains, according to court papers.
According to Avena, he had returned to the Mapes residence to deliver furniture during the last week of July 2019, and when he arrived, Hernandez allegedly admitted manually strangling the woman, saying “she was a rat, and I had to take her down,” the affidavit stated.
Avena went on to describe how he reluctantly helped wrap the victim in a carpet and load her body into the back of his Chevrolet Yukon. Investigators allege the witness and Hernandez proceeded to drive toward Orange County via the Ortega (74) Highway, stopping two to three miles east of San Juan Capistrano.
Avena explained that he parked his SUV in the hills, and Hernandez and he carried the body an unspecified distance into the woods, dumping it, according to court papers.
Sufficient evidence was gathered to charge Hernandez with murder and Avena with being an accessory after the fact. He pleaded guilty to the felony count in March and is slated to be sentenced in February. He’s free on a $50,000 bond.
Despite several attempts to locate Neitzke’s remains by law enforcement and volunteers, her body has never been found.
Hernandez has prior convictions in another jurisdiction, but they weren’t listed in court documents.