An Oct. 17 trial date was confirmed Friday for a 24-year-old probationer accused of fatally beating a Riverside senior after breaking into her home, as well as attacking a jail deputy in a separate unrelated incident.
Sixto Jesus Garcia Pena of Palm Springs was arrested in 2021 following a Riverside Police Department investigation into the slaying of 78-year-old Denise Irene Wong.
Pena is charged with first-degree murder, special-circumstance allegations of killing in the commission of a robbery, killing in the commission of a burglary and inflicting torture, as well as attempted murder of a peace officer, assault on a peace officer and obstructing a law enforcement official.
Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty if the defendant is convicted.
During a status hearing at the Riverside Hall of Justice Friday, Superior Court Judge Matthew Perantoni conferred with the prosecution and defense regarding future proceedings, and both sides agreed to clear their schedules for trial this fall. If the October date doesn’t hold, it’s unlikely the judge will indulge further long-term postponements. The case has been awaiting disposition for more than four years.
Pena is being held without bail at the Robert Presley Jail.
He was formally taken into custody for the murder in mid-January 2021 at the Imperial County Jail, where he was awaiting adjudication of an unrelated attempted vehicle theft case, according to the District Attorney’s Office. Riverside police detectives served an arrest warrant at the facility, then transferred him to Riverside County.
According to Riverside police Officer Ryan Railsback, Pena allegedly killed Wong in her single-story house in the 1200 block of East Manfield Street, near Masters Avenue, on Jan. 6, 2021.
“Denise was a loving mother, grandmother, sister, friend and a good and kind person,” police Chief Larry Gonzalez said at the time. The victim had been a resident of the city for five decades.
Patrol officers were called to her home after her loved ones requested a welfare check because she hadn’t responded to phone calls. She was found dead from injuries inflicted only few hours earlier, Railsback said.
He alleged Pena accessed the residence by breaking a rear window.
“Officers observed some items … out of place and consistent with a burglary,” the police spokesman said, adding the victim’s car was stolen.
Detectives confirmed the sedan was involved in a hit-and-run collision in Indio within hours of the break-in.
Indio police impounded the abandoned vehicle, and homicide investigators went to the impound yard, collecting evidence from the car that helped them identify Pena as the alleged assailant, Railsback said.
Three days later, with the help of the county’s Gang Impact Team, they confirmed Pena had been arrested in Imperial County, and arrangements were made for his transfer.
Only two weeks prior to Wong’s death, the defendant had been booked into the Smith Correctional Facility for apparent probation violations. While still in the holding area of the Banning jail, awaiting a cell assignment, he allegedly attacked a correctional deputy for unspecified reasons, according to court records.
“He violently (resisted) other deputies who came to the aid of the deputy Pena tried to kill,” according to a District Attorney’s Office statement.
The deputies were not seriously injured, nor was Pena.
He was able to post bond not long after Christmas, at which point he evidently headed into Riverside to allegedly commit burglaries, records showed.
Pena has documented prior convictions for child abuse, auto theft and receiving stolen property.