Two Face a Judge Monday in the 2021 Bedroom Killing of Pasadena 13-Year-Old

Two people accused of killing a 13-year-old boy with a single shot fired across a residential street are scheduled to appear in a Pasadena courtroom Monday morning.

The pretrial hearing is set for 8:30 a.m. in Department F at the Pasadena Courthouse, 300 East Walnut Street, before Judge Michael D. Carter. 

Muhammad Abdul-Malik and Teraeja Laquanna Flemmings each face one count of murder in the death of Iran Moreno, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Abdul-Malik also faces one felony count of possession of a firearm by a felon, along with an allegation that he personally and intentionally discharged a firearm causing great bodily injury or death. Prosecutors filed the charges on July 18, 2025.

Moreno was playing video games in his bedroom on the evening of November 20, 2021, when a bullet came through a window of his family’s home on the 900 block of North Raymond Avenue.

Abdul-Malik reportedly stepped out of a vehicle parked in a vacant lot across the street, fired once, and fled in a car Flemmings was driving, prosecutors allege.

Moreno was not the intended target, the Pasadena Police Department has said, yet no motive has been officially established.

For nearly four years, no one was charged. Pasadena detectives released enhanced surveillance footage and composite sketches in June 2025. The video showed a gray Ford Fusion stopped across from the home and a front-seat passenger firing two rounds eastward, and it yielded a partial license plate, QJ117. A woman in the Swampscott, Massachusetts, area recognized the man in the sketch and called police.

Abdul-Malik was ultimately arrested July 11, 2025, in Orlando, Florida. Flemmings was arrested five days later in the City of San Fernando by Pasadena detectives working with U.S. Marshals. The District Attorney’s Office requested bail of $3 million for Abdul-Malik and $2 million for Flemmings. Abdul-Malik was extradited to California in late August 2025 and pleaded not guilty.

If convicted as charged, Abdul-Malik faces up to 53 years to life in state prison and Flemings up to 25 years to life, according to the District Attorney’s Office. Both are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

District Attorney Nathan Hochman called the killing “unacceptable and criminal” in a statement issued by his office when the charges were filed. Deputy District Attorney Antonella Nistorescu of the Major Crimes Division was assigned to prosecute.

Lieutenant Carlo Montiglio of the Pasadena Police Department once addressed the motive after the arrests.

“We don’t believe it to be gang-related in the sense of retaliation,” Montiglio said.

Iran Moreno was an eighth-grade student at Blair Middle School. His family described him as a straight-A student who played basketball and soccer.

Maria Munguia, a friend of the family, said in 2021 that the boy “grew up to be such a loving kid with the biggest smile.”