A state appeals court panel Wednesday upheld a Lakeview Terrace man’s conviction for murdering two of his neighbors and injuring a third after an argument with his family about tire-screeching noises.
In a 22-page ruling, the three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal concluded that “sufficient evidence — including testimony from several eyewitnesses supports” that Richard Chico Nevarez “shot the three men with premeditation and deliberation.”
The appellate court justices also rejected the defense’s claim that Superior Court Judge Laura Priver failed to provide an adequate response to a jury note asking for clarification about the difference between first- and second-degree murder and the definition of the term “provocation” and its application in Nevarez’s case.
Nevarez, now 45, was convicted in August 2023 of two counts of first-degree murder for the Aug. 28, 2016, shooting deaths of Moises Farias, 68, and Edgar Canaan, 47, along with one count each of attempted murder and assault with a semiautomatic firearm.
Jurors also found true a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, along with allegations that Nevarez used a handgun and that he had a 2008 conviction for first-degree burglary.
He was sentenced in August 2024 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Deputy District Attorney Scott Eisen told the judge at the defendant’s sentencing hearing that “this was senseless and completely unnecessary,” saying that the victims were shot either in the side or the back.
He noted that Nevarez was not even initially part of the dispute and said that the defendant indiscriminately began shooting after arriving at the scene, where the argument had de-escalated.
“There isn’t a sentence that fixes this or makes it right,” the prosecutor said.
Farias and Canaan each died after being taken to a hospital.
Farias’ daughter said her father “hated conflict” and questioned “how anyone could be so evil to murder” him.
Nevarez’s trial attorney, Peter Korn, disputed the prosecution’s characterization of what led to the shooting. The lawyer told the judge that his client — who had recently been shot — was coming to the rescue of his family and that someone yelled as he was heading back to his vehicle.
“This is not a cold-blooded murder,” Nevarez’s lawyer told the judge, adding that there was “a lot of provocation.”
Nevarez was arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Metropolitan Division in March 2019, and has remained behind bars since then.