A 23-year-old man was charged Tuesday in Orange County with the murders of four people whose bodies were found in vehicles — three in Orange in a torched SUV and one in Fontana.
Alejandro Guerrero Ruiz of Orange, who is in custody in Texas on a separate matter, also faces special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder during the commission of a robbery, making him eligible for the death penalty if convicted, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Scott Simmons.
The prosecutor declined to comment further on the nature of Ruiz’s arrest in Texas, but the District Attorney’s Office will have to extradite the defendant.
Simmons was tight-lipped on the motive for the murders, but said “drugs were definitely involved.”
The victims in Orange were identified as 19-year-old Antonio Medina of Glendale, Arizona, 20-year-old Fernando Meza of Phoenix, Arizona, and 26-year- old Edgar Berrelleza-Soto of Orange. They were in an SUV found ablaze and rolled onto a sidewalk in front of a home in the 500 block of East Oakmont Avenue near Shaffer Street the afternoon of Nov. 9.
The fourth victim was identified as 35-year-old Joel Mauricio Berrelleza of Orange, the brother of Berrelleza-Soto. His body was found Nov. 15 in the back seat of a car in Fontana, but he was not burned, Simmons said.
The date of all four murders was listed as Nov. 9 in an arrest warrant attached to the criminal complaint.
Simmons said he believes all of the victims were shot to death. Meza’s autopsy also revealed he was stabbed, according to Orange County sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Hallock.
The driver of the SUV bailed out following a “low-speed” collision in Orange, but Simmons declined comment on whether Ruiz was the driver.
The special-circumstance allegation of murder during a robbery applies to all of the victims, Simmons said.
—City News Service