Jury selection continued Wednesday in the trial of a 24-year-old man accused of joining his brother in a violent takeover robbery at a Banning cannabis store, where two people were stabbed and another shot.
Raymond Emilio Paul Matus of Beaumont is charged with armed robbery, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon and sentence-enhancing allegations of using a deadly weapon in the commission of a felon and inflicting great bodily injury.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Steven Counelis began screening for potential jurors Monday morning at the Riverside Hall of Justice. The process had been expected to conclude Wednesday afternoon, but the prosecution and defense continued to qualify jurors to the end of the day. It was uncertain whether they would wrap up Thursday. Proceedings are slated to be suspended Friday ahead of Easter weekend.
Matus is being held without bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.
His older brother, Richard Matus Jr., died from a drug overdose at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta in 2022. He was 29 years old.
According to Banning police and court documents, on the night of June 23, 2018, the defendants allegedly targeted the Go Green Calming Solutions marijuana shop at 6020 Ramsey St.
The brothers allegedly burst into the outlet, and Richard Matus immediately shot an employee in the face, according to Banning police Detective Derek Thesier.
Several of the victim’s coworkers, as well as store patrons, tried to subdue the gunman, at which point “Raymond Matus produced a knife and started stabbing the employees and patrons,” the detective wrote in an arrest declaration affidavit.
Two men, identified in court documents as Daniel T. and Thomas H., suffered non-life-threatening stab wounds, as did the gunshot victim, whose name was not released.
After the victims went to the floor, the defendants allegedly grabbed multiple jars containing cannabis products, then drove away in a dark-colored sedan, according to court papers.
The victims were taken to a regional trauma center for treatment. All of the parties have since recovered.
Within two days of investigators circulating security surveillance photographs of the assailants via social media, numerous people contacted police, confirming the men’s identities, according to documents.
A week later, the pair were arrested without incident in San Diego.
Richard Matus had prior convictions for driving under the influence and being a habitual traffic offender. His younger brother has no documented prior felony or misdemeanor convictions. However, he has multiple unresolved cases pending resolution, including for felony theft and assault.
The Matus family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit last year against the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in connection with the death of Richard Matus, who reportedly suffered a massive coronary after taking an unspecified quantity of fentanyl smuggled into his jail cell.
The plaintiffs allege staff were deficient in their response and pointed to wider, systemic problems caused by the sheriff, his administrators and the county as a whole, setting the stage for their loved one’s loss.
The defendants’ mother, Lisa Matus, has appeared before the county Board of Supervisors to publicly air grievances about her son’s death and the time coroner’s officials took in responding to her requests for information.