Pretrial motions began Tuesday ahead of jury selection for the trial of two men accused of fatally shooting a San Jacinto woman and her male companion as they drove on the Ramona Expressway.
Martel Patrick McBride and Kenneth Hahn Wilson, both 24 and of Hemet, are charged with first-degree murder, a special circumstance allegation of taking multiple lives and sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations for the 2018 slayings of 19-year-old Lauren Lopez and 22-year-old Patrick Powell of Hemet.
Alexis Mary Garcia and Ariel Irene Savoie — both 25 and of Hemet — each pleaded guilty last year to two counts of voluntary manslaughter.
Garcia is slated to be sentenced on March 11 and Savoie on Feb. 16.
The women are both being held at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning — Garcia without bail, and Savoie in lieu of $2 million bail.
McBride’s and Wilson’s case was transferred Tuesday from the Banning Justice Center to the courtroom of Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jason Armand at the Riverside Hall of Justice. Armand began hearing pretrial motions concerning trial scheduling, witnesses and instructions.
Jury selection was slated to get underway before week’s end.
According to Sgt. Walter Mendez of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, Lopez and Powell were shot to death just before noon on Jan. 3, 2018.
The victims were on the Ramona Expressway, approaching Warren Road, when Powell’s hatchback was struck by gunfire.
Mendez said the vehicle came to a stop on the shoulder, prompting passers-by to call 911. Deputies and paramedics arrived moments later, discovering the two victims gravely wounded. They were taken to Riverside University Medical Center in Moreno Valley, where the pair were pronounced dead less than an hour later.
Sheriff’s investigators did not disclose a possible motive or any details regarding how the four defendants were identified.
None of them have prior documented felony or misdemeanor convictions.