A felon accused of beating and carjacking a Mead Valley motorist who gave him and his cohort a ride must stand trial for battery resulting in great bodily injury and other offenses, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Daniel Enrique Quevedo, 29, of Moreno Valley, was arrested in April 2023 following a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department investigation into the alleged attack.
At the end of a preliminary hearing Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Jason Armand found there was sufficient evidence to bound Quevedo over for trial on the battery count, along with carjacking resulting in great bodily injury and being a felon in possession of a loaded firearm.
The judge scheduled a post-preliminary hearing arraignment for June 20 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
Quevedo remains held in lieu of $150,000 bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.
His co-defendant, 27-year-old Anthony Atilano of Moreno Valley, pleaded guilty in January to carjacking resulting in great bodily injury and battery resulting in great bodily injury and was sentenced by Judge Walter Kubelun to six years in state prison.
According to sheriff’s Sgt. Dave Tinker, the attack occurred in the predawn hours of March 26, 2023, in the 22000 block of Cajalco Road in Mead Valley.
Tinker said the victim, whose name was not disclosed, was driving his friend’s 2008 Saturn Vue through the area when he spotted Atilano and Quevedo trying to hitch a ride.
Tinker alleged after the man picked them up, they turned hostile, “assaulted him, fired a round from a sawed-off shotgun and stole the vehicle.”
The victim was able to seek help, and patrol deputies found him disoriented and bleeding from the head on Cajalco about 6 a.m. that day, according to the sergeant.
The man was taken to a hospital for treatment and ultimately recovered.
The Saturn was located abandoned later the same day in Moreno Valley.
Detectives obtained security surveillance videotape from a convenience store where the defendants allegedly stopped while driving the compact SUV, and based on that and other evidence, they were eventually able to identify the two alleged carjackers, Tinker said.
The pair were taken into custody without incident at a motel on La Sierra Avenue in Riverside a week later.
According to court records, Quevedo has a prior conviction for receiving a stolen vehicle. Atilano had priors for auto theft, being in possession of controlled substances and driving under the influence.