A methamphetamine dealer who gunned down a Blythe man in a drug dispute, then fled to Mexico and hid out for years before being apprehended, was convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder and other charges.
A Riverside jury deliberated one day before finding Jorge Ernesto Cazares, 36, of Blythe guilty in the 2012 slaying of 24-year-old Terrence Hughes.
Along with murder, jurors on Tuesday convicted Cazares of sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations. Riverside County Superior Court Judge Bernard Schwartz scheduled a sentencing hearing for May 28 at the Riverside Hall of Justice.
Cazares, who is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Detention Center, is facing 50 years to life in state prison.
According to a trial brief filed by the District Attorney’s Office, the defendant and Hughes were well acquainted in a buyer-seller relationship connected with Cazares’ methamphetamine dealing.
In late November 2012, Hughes contacted the defendant about purchasing two ounces of methamphetamine, and the defendant agreed, meeting the victim near downtown Blythe. During the encounter, Hughes drew a pistol and forcibly took Cazares’ drugs, then fled the location, prosecutors said.
The defendant later told friends that because he didn’t receive payment for the methamphetamine, he was unable to pay his supplier from Mexico, who seized his pickup and threatened to keep it unless the drug costs were covered, court papers said.
On the afternoon of Dec. 1, 2012, Cazares agreed to go with a friend and relatives to a Christmas parade, but when the man retrieved the defendant from the Squaw Valley Apartments, he immediately sensed Cazares was tense.
As the man, whose name wasn’t disclosed, started driving to his family’s house, Cazares made a phone call, engaging in an argument with someone the driver didn’t recognize, the brief stated.
The defendant directed the driver to the corner of North Palm Drive and West Barnard Street, to the front of the Blythe Villa Apartments. The driver later told Blythe Police Department officers that Cazares abruptly jumped out of the vehicle, taking a position in front of it and opening fire with a .38-caliber revolver.
Hughes was struck several times and collapsed near the entrance to one of the ground-floor apartments.
The driver who had given Cazares a lift tried to leave, but the defendant quickly returned to the car, at which point he directed the man to take him to a residence, where he could enlist assistance from other friends, according to the brief.
Police officers and paramedics arrived at the Blythe Villa Apartments in response to 911 calls and found Hughes in grave condition. He was taken to Palo Verde Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Cazares talked a friend into driving him to Phoenix via Interstate 10, knowing where he could get help crossing the border into Mexico. While en route, the driver who had taken the defendant to where Hughes was gunned down went to police and confessed to everything he’d witnessed, according to court papers.
By the time detectives put the pieces together, Cazares had already fled south of the border.
He was taken into custody without incident on July 29, 2018, at Calexico after returning to the U.S. via a Border Patrol checkpoint.
He had no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.