Pretrial motions began Monday ahead of jury selection for the trial of a 22-year-old man accused of gunning down a Desert Hot Springs resident and wounding another person during an attempted holdup.
Angel Arangure of Desert Hot Springs is charged with first-degree murder and three counts of attempted robbery, as well as a special circumstance allegation of killing during the commission of a robbery and sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations for the 2020 attack.
His alleged cohort was 17 years old when the killing occurred, and the boy’s case was disposed in juvenile court.
Arangure’s case was transferred Monday to the courtroom of Riverside County Superior Court Judge Otis Sterling at the Larson Justice Center in Indio, where the judge ruled on motions concerning evidence, witnesses, scheduling and parameters for jury questionnaires.
The judge set the start of jury selection for Tuesday morning.
Arangure is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Benoit Detention Center in Indio.
The alleged holdup occurred on the night of July 14, 2020, in the area of Santa Cruz Road and West Drive in Desert Hot Springs.
The victim was identified in court documents only as a man named “P.E.”
Officers patrolling near the intersection of Santa Cruz and West were alerted to gunshots about 11:50 p.m. and quickly found two men wounded in the street, with a third man who had been in the line of fire, inside a car attempting to flee.
All of the victims were taken to a Coachella Valley hospital, where P.E. died. The other person, whose name was not released, was treated for a non-life-threatening injury and fully recovered.
Detectives arrested the 17-year-old defendant within 12 hours of the shooting. Further evidence pointed to Arangure, and he was tracked down and taken into custody a week later.
He has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.
Background information on the teenager was not available.