Marco Antonio Hernandez, 21, Abraham Ernesto Alvarenga Cortez, 23, and Luis Ventura, 27, are charged in the Munoz killing. Jurors deliberated just over an hour Friday afternoon and are due back at 9 a.m. Monday in Department 101 of the Criminal Courts Building at 210 W. Temple St. in downtown Los Angeles.
The Angeles Crest Highway lookout, though miles outside Pasadena’s contiguous city limits, falls within Pasadena Police Department jurisdiction. Pasadena Police Department’s Robbery/Homicide Unit led the investigation from the response to the scene through a multi-agency arrest operation in Panorama City on July 25, 2023, and a follow-up arrest and search warrant operation on August 29, 2023. All five defendants in the case have been identified by Pasadena Police Department as members of the MS-13 gang (Mara Salvatrucha).
Munoz was sitting in his car with a female friend at what Deputy District Attorney Hilary Williams described as a “perfect place to come upon unsuspecting victims and rob them,” with the group acting as a “pack” that outnumbered and robbed the two before Alvarenga Cortez fired at Munoz as the victim tried to back his vehicle out, according to Williams. The victim’s vehicle wound up on top of a guardrail, the prosecutor said.
Williams told jurors that Alvarenga Cortez told an undercover operative in jail following his arrest that “I shot him three times.”
“This case is about coordinated violence, purposeful violence and predatory violence,” Williams said as closing arguments began earlier in the week. “They hunted together, they robbed together, they killed together.”
In her rebuttal argument, Deputy District Attorney Carmelia Mejia urged jurors to convict, arguing that the victims “should all be on this planet” but that the defendants “stole their lives.”
The three defendants are being tried alongside two others charged in a separate double homicide because the same firearm used in the Munoz killing was used two days later, on July 24, 2023, in the shooting deaths of Jorge Ramos and Taylor Raven Whittaker inside a parked Subaru in the 7000 block of Palos Verdes Drive in Rancho Palos Verdes. Hernandez is charged in both killings. Alvarenga Cortez and Ventura are charged only in the Munoz case. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigated the Rancho Palos Verdes killings.
Hernandez faces three counts of murder, two counts of robbery involving the Angeles Crest Highway attack, one count of conspiracy to commit robbery, a personal firearm-use allegation, and special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder during the commission of a robbery or attempted robbery.
Alvarenga Cortez faces one count of murder, two counts of robbery involving the Angeles Crest Highway attack, one count of conspiracy to commit robbery, a personal firearm-use allegation, and the special circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a robbery or attempted robbery.
Ventura faces one count of murder, two counts of robbery involving the Angeles Crest Highway attack, and one count of conspiracy to commit robbery. He is not facing any special circumstance allegations.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office opted not to seek the death penalty. Hernandez and Alvarenga Cortez could face life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted as charged.
Hernandez’s attorney, Damon Hobdy, questioned the murder charge against his client in the Munoz killing, arguing that Hernandez didn’t plan the crime, supply a gun or do anything other than drive the getaway vehicle. He urged the panel to “make your decision based on the evidence.”
Alvarenga Cortez’s attorney, Anthony Arzili, questioned the accounts of two key prosecution witnesses and asked jurors to acquit his client, saying the young man was in the United States without any family and was homeless at the time.
Ventura’s attorney, Simon Aval, said he didn’t know why his client was charged with murder, noting that “my client didn’t shoot anybody.”
“They’re trying to get five murder convictions and stretching the law,” Aval said.
California Highway Patrol officers first came upon the scene at 3:21 a.m. on July 22, 2023, after discovering what appeared to be a solo vehicle accident at mile marker 28.36 on Angeles Crest Highway.
Pasadena Police Department detectives were called in and determined the motive was robbery.
The July 25, 2023, arrest operation involved the U.S. Marshals Pacific Southwest Region Fugitive Apprehension Task Force, Pasadena Police Department’s Street Crime Unit, SWAT and K9 teams, the Los Angeles Police Department Robbery-Homicide Division, and the Los Angeles Police Department Air Support Division, and recovered two semi-automatic firearms, including the weapon later confirmed to be used in the Munoz killing.
Ventura was formally arrested by Pasadena police on July 26, 2023. Murder charges were filed against the three Munoz-case defendants after Pasadena Police Department Robbery/Homicide Unit detectives met with Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office prosecutors on August 31, 2023.
Pasadena Police Department Lieutenant Keith Gomez served as the public face of the investigation.
All three defendants have remained in custody since their arrests in the summer of 2023.
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