A Lengthy Seashore man was convicted of homicide Thursday for his position within the robbery-killing of a marijuana dispensary employee who was transporting tens of hundreds of dollars in money in Santa Ana.
An Orange County Superior Court docket jury deliberated for greater than a day earlier than discovering Antonio Lamont Triplett, 51, responsible of first-degree homicide for his position in the Sept. 16, 2019 slaying of 29-year-old Osvaldo Garcia, who was run off a roadway, shot a number of instances, pistol-whipped and crushed on the Santa Ana School campus.
Triplett — who allegedly carried out the deadly theft with co-defendants John Taylor and Ryan Jones — was not accused of truly capturing Garcia or driving the automobile that pressured Garcia off the street. However he was accused of being on the scene of the capturing and serving because the “bag man” who ran off with Garcia’s backpack full of money, and Deputy District Legal professional Mark Birney argued to jurors that guilt for Garcia’s demise prolonged past the one that truly pulled the set off.
“When Osvaldo is dying, he's searching for his bag of cash,” the prosecutor stated of Triplett throughout his closing arguments. “This isn’t ‘We're going to ask for the cash and he's going to offer it to us.’ They plan to take it.”
Triplett’s legal professional, Deputy Public Defender Lawrence Volk, countered throughout his personal closing arguments to the jury that whereas Triplett was concerned within the theft, there was not sufficient proof to show he acted with reckless indifference to human life. Because of this, the protection legal professional argued, Triplett shouldn’t be held chargeable for the killing.
“Clearly what occurred that evening was not the plan,” the protection legal professional stated.
Garcia labored for a marijuana dispensary in South Los Angeles, the place he was chargeable for transporting money receipts from the enterprise. On Sept. 15, 2019 he left the dispensary shortly after 11 p.m. with a backpack full of money, planning to satisfy his girlfriend at an In-N-Out in Santa Ana.
Santa Ana Metropolis School safety footage confirmed one other automobile forcing Garcia’s automotive off the roadway close to the Bristol and seventeenth streets intersection. Garcia’s automotive went over a sidewalk and onto a raised embankment and hedges. Garcia was on the cellphone along with his girlfriend on the time and exclaimed, “They're capturing at me, assist me!,” based on testimony in the course of the trial.
Triplett and one other man instantly received out of the opposite automobile and ran as much as Garcia’s automotive, with the opposite man firing a number of gunshots at Garcia, the safety video confirmed. The boys shortly walked to the passenger aspect of automotive, the place Garcia was crawling out of the passenger window. Garcia was as soon as once more shot, then pistol-whipped and crushed. He was finally struck 5 instances by the gunfire and died on the scene.
Safety footage confirmed a marked Santa Ana police patrol automotive move by on Bristol Road shortly after the capturing, however the officer driving the automotive apparently didn’t see Garcia’s physique or his crashed automobile. However, instantly after the patrol automotive drove by, a person the prosecutor recognized as Triplett ran off with Garcia’s backpack, slicing by means of the campus and a close-by buying heart. The automobile that ran Garcia off the street was proven leaving minutes later, shortly earlier than different Santa Ana officers responding to reviews of a visitors collision arrived on the campus.
Garcia’s girlfriend, who was listening to the theft and capturing on an open cellphone line and was nervous that he had been kidnapped, went to the campus and was taken by police to the close by Santa Ana Police Station. Officers realized that Garcia’s girlfriend had not ended the decision to her boyfriend’s cellphone, which had been stolen by one of many suspects.
Aided by a police helicopter, investigators tracked Garcia’s stolen mobile phone first to Corona after which alongside a number of Los Angeles-area freeways to a parking zone in Carson, the place the occupants of a number of autos had been seen transferring objects from one automotive to a different.
Two autos had been stopped by police as they left the Carson lot, whereas a 3rd automotive — which contained the stolen mobile phone — was adopted by police to Lengthy Seashore. Amongst these taken into custody that morning had been Triplett, Taylor and Jones, together with a girl who labored on the identical dispensary as Garcia.
Blood discovered on Triplett’s shoe after his arrest was tied to Garcia, and mobile phone knowledge collected by investigators confirmed Jones close to the dispensary earlier within the evening and Jones, Triplett and Taylor in Santa Ana on the time of the theft and killing.
Jones was recognized in the course of the trial because the suspected driver of the automobile that drove Garcia off the roadway, whereas Taylor was alleged to have been the one that beat and shot Garcia. Each males are nonetheless awaiting trial.
With the jury discovering that the killing occurred throughout a theft, Triplett faces as much as life in jail with out the opportunity of parole. He's scheduled to return to court docket for sentencing on July 6.