SANTA ANA, Calif.—A 33-year-old man was sentenced July 24 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his part in a plot to kill four men, including three who were scorched in a moving car in Orange in the middle of the day, over a struggle for control of a drug dealing operation.
Raul Gastellum Flores was convicted April 29 of four counts of murder, with special circumstances of killing during a robbery and multiple murders.
Co-defendants Alexis Corral, 31, Juan Fidencio Castro, 34, and Rosario Roman-Lopez, 32, remain at large. Angel De Jesus Barreras, 32, pleaded guilty to robbery in a deal with prosecutors to testify against Mr. Flores and was sentenced in May to time served in jail.
Mr. Flores was convicted of killing 19-year-old Antonio Medina of Glendale, Arizona, 20-year-old Fernando Meza of Phoenix, 26-year-old Edgar Berrelleza-Soto of Orange, California, and his brother, 35-year-old Joel Mauricio Berrelleza of Orange, California.
Mr. Medina, Mr. Meza, and Mr. Berrelleza-Soto were found in a flaming SUV rolling onto a sidewalk in front of a home in the 500 block of East Oakmont Avenue near Shaffer Street on the afternoon of Nov. 9, 2015. Joel Berrelleza was found Nov. 15 in the backseat of a car in Fontana, California.
During July 24’s sentencing hearing, Idalia Meza, Mr. Meza’s sister-in-law, read a letter from the victim’s mother saying, “I want to scream at [Mr. Flores]. I want to know if you care.”
The victim’s mother said she has “a hard time looking at Fernando’s pictures. ... Nine years later it still hurts like hell. ... Fernando’s headstone, that’s all I have left.”
The victim’s brother, Pedro, said Fernando Meza “had nothing to do with this business. ... [Mr. Flores] had no mercy on my brother so I ask [Orange County Superior Court Judge Sheila Hanson] to have no mercy on [the defendant].”
The victim’s sister, Jessica, said he “was a serious, fine noble person. ... He had a family who would fill him up with love. Fernando was innocent. ... He was tortured. He begged a thousand times to let him go, but you heard he was pleading for his life and yet you had no compassion. You had the opportunity to let him go but, no, you decided to burn up the truck.”
She said Mr. Flores was a “monster. I wish that you rot in hell.”
Senior Deputy District Attorney Harris Siddiq read a letter from Mr. Medina’s mother, Angelica Medina, describing how she could not attend the trial because she had to be caretaker for her husband, who was so traumatized by his son’s death he ended up bedridden.
“The loss of his son was too much to bear,” she said in the letter.
Their adult sons are going through the motions of life, she said.
“They don’t socialize with anyone. They just go to work,” she said. “I worry about them all the time. Any time they don’t answer the phone I have a panic attack.”
Mr. Medina and Mr. Meza were friends since they were one and grew up together, she said.
Mr. Flores told Judge Hanson through a translator, “I want to say to the victims’s families and as well to my family that I am sorry I put you in this situation.”
But he denied shooting or killing any of the victims.
“I would like you to understand ... that in situations like that it’s not easy to control other people’s actions,” he said. “I feel very bad that I caused pain to the victims’s families.”
The defendant’s brother, Uli Flores, said he looked up to his brother and said the family “supports him. we love him.”
The defendant’s attorney, Cameron Talley, said his client is “a gentleman. He’s been nothing but polite. ... He’s a good guy.”
Mr. Talley argued that his client didn’t personally shoot any of the victims and had no idea they would be shot. He said if “law enforcement didn’t drop the ball and the three bad guys were caught,” referring to the fugitives in the case, then perhaps his client would have also received a plea deal.
But Deputy District Attorney Siddiq said the evidence in the case is “contrary to Mr. Talley’s opinion. The defendant was aware of what would happen. ... He was a big part of the plan to take over the drug business and that greed is what motivated him to go from Arizona and come to California and kill four people.”
Even after the fiery murders of three victims in Orange, Mr. Flores “went to a second location” where the fourth victim was killed, the prosecutor said.
“They callously videotaped as the fourth victim was moaning and groaning and dying,” Mr. Siddiq said. “The defendant intended to kill. He wasn’t here for a business meeting.”
The judge told Mr. Flores, “make no mistake, you are being sentenced for your actions.”
She said it was one of the “most terrible murders I’ve seen” as a judge.
“You were there, you were driving the car and jumped out,” Judge Hanson said. “Fernando was still alive. ... It was a senseless killing, all in retaliation.”
After killing the three men and igniting the GMC Yukon with a cigarette lighter, Mr. Flores bailed out and dashed to a trailing car, Mr. Siddiq said.
“A fourth victim was tied up, robbed and marched out of his apartment,” Mr. Siddiq said of Joel Berrelleza.
He was led to a car and shot multiple times, Mr. Siddiq said.
Mr. Roman-Lopez videotaped the bleeding victim in the car, “and they couldn’t contain their laughter,” Mr. Siddiq said.
The drug peddlers had “ties to the Sinaloa Drug Cartel,” Mr. Siddiq said.
A witness told police he saw a 2007 Pontiac G6 with a man appearing to be slumbering inside on Nov. 12, 2015, and when he passed by it again near Mango Avenue and Orange Way, he saw the same car and man inside and called police, who found Mr. Berrelleza’s body, which had been shot four times, Mr. Siddiq said.
Mr. Barreras was arrested on Dec. 11, 2015, and told investigators he lived with the Mr. Berrelleza brothers at 2065 N. Orange-Olive Road, Mr. Siddiq said. Mr. Barreras sold drugs for the two, who got into a dispute with Mr. Roman-Lopez, the prosecutor said.
Mr. Roman-Lopez went back to Mexico to care for his ailing wife and the brothers promised to send him money as part of the drug-dealing operation, but they instead cut him out, Mr. Siddiq said.
On Oct. 28, 2015, Mr. Roman-Lopez visited Mr. Barreras with “four friends” and said he intended to kill the brothers, who, Mr. Barreras said, had $50,000 to $60,000 in cash, according to the prosecutor.
On the day of the killing, Mr. Barreras was with Mr. Roman-Lopez when Mr. Flores called saying he had the three men with him, including Edgar Berrelleza, who was pleading for his life, Mr. Siddiq said.
“This drug business was making $5,800 a day, nearly $2 million a year,” Mr. Siddiq said.
Mr. Flores “wanted in,” Mr. Siddiq said.
Mr. Roman-Lopez summoned help from Phoenix because he wanted to catch the brothers “off guard” with people they did not know, Mr. Siddiq said.
After the killings, Mr. Flores went on to Oklahoma, where he was arrested by federal agents for allegedly selling drugs there, Mr. Siddiq said.
