SANTA ANA — Two men were sentenced Friday to life in prison for a machete and knife attack that killed a man and wounded his girlfriend seven years ago at a Lake Forest apartment complex.
Jose Rafael Andrademembreno, 29, and Edwin Francisco Diaz, 25, were both convicted Oct. 14 of first-degree murder with special circumstances of lying in wait as well as conspiracy and the personal use of a deadly weapon. Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Menninger tacked on an additional year to the life sentence.
Last month, Andrademembreno wrote a letter to Menninger saying he had a “bad understanding with my lawyer” on declining to testify in the trial.
“I wasn’t OK with staying quiet,” he wrote. “I wanted to go up and explain what had happened. My defense didn’t let me speak. I feel that’s why I lost in my case. Because it’s my life I just lost. And all those witnesses hid the truth. Now they make me feel/look guilty for a murder I didn’t do.”
They were convicted of the Oct. 1, 2018, killing of Marco Morales.
The trouble began when Morales sold a .22-caliber rifle to a teenager, Jose Henriquez, who angered Morales when he “paraded” the weapon on social media, Deputy District Attorney James Applegate said.
“Morales didn’t like that … and he took the rifle back,” the prosecutor said.
Morales whacked the teen over the head with the rifle and didn’t give the boy his money back, Applegate said.
Henriquez told Andrademembreno what happened, allegedly sparking the conspiracy to kill Morales, the prosecutor said.
Applegate said investigators later found Facebook Messenger data showing the suspects discussing the plan.
On the night of the attack, Morales and his girlfriend, Jessica Rodriguez, were in the apartment complex’s whirlpool spa area around 2 a.m. when the suspects coordinated the assault via text messages, Applegate said.
Xiomara Elizabeth Berrios, 25, said she was dating and living with Andrademembreno at the Forest Glen apartments in October 2018 when Morales was killed, according to court records. Berrios pleaded guilty Oct. 24 to second-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
When Berrios saw Morales and Rodriguez in a whirlpool spa at the apartment complex early in the evening of the deadly attack, she went back to her room and told Andrademembreno they were there, according to prosecutors.
“A short time later, her brother, defendant Diaz, came to the apartment,” prosecutors said in court papers. “She saw (Andrademembreno) take a machete out of the bedroom closet.”
Then Berrios saw Andrademembreno, Diaz and a third person go to the whirlpool spa with Andrademembreno hopping a fence to open a gate, granting access to Diaz and the third person, prosecutors said.
Andrademembreno, Diaz and the third person attacked Morales as he got out of the whirlpool spa, with the two defendants shouting out the MS-13 gang name multiple times, prosecutors said. Morales grabbed a patio chair to fend off his attackers before running away with his assailants in tow, prosecutors said.
Berrios stayed behind and stabbed Rodriguez, who managed to run away and survive, prosecutors alleged.
Berrios told authorities she saw Andrademembreno and Diaz running away, still brandishing their weapons and laughing before jumping into a getaway car, prosecutors said.
Morales’ body was found around 5:40 a.m., and he had been nearly decapitated, according to court documents. Rodriguez suffered cuts to her upper chest, Applegate said.
A gang expert for prosecutors said that the suspects’ ties to MS-13 partly motivated the attack, Applegate said.
“Everything is about … respect” with the gang, the prosecutor said.
Andrademembreno, the prosecutor alleged, has been in the gang since he was 16.
“Anyone who disrespects MS-13 will be killed,” the prosecutor said.
Morales’ DNA was found on Andrademembreno’s bloodied jeans, Applegate said.
Andrademembreno’s attorney, Paul Rogers, argued that Berrios lied and pointed to multiple inconsistent statements to authorities and prosecutors and in her testimony.
“She came here because they went to her” with a deal, Rogers argued.
A mistrial was declared in June in a trial of Andrademembreno and Berrios, when Rodriguez refused to testify. After that, prosecutors crafted a plea deal with Berrios agreeing to testify in a retrial of Andrademembreno and Diaz.
Rodriguez had been granted immunity but still refused to testify, leading Andrademembreno to hold her in contempt after the first trial, court records show.
“They knew she was lying,” Rogers said of investigators. “This is a recipe for a wrongful conviction.”
Diaz’s attorney, James Crawford, argued that after the victim was slashed to death Andrademembreno let Diaz into the apartment complex, so the killing had already happened.
Crawford said the lying in wait allegations could not be proved because his client was just standing by a gate when the attack happened.
“There’s no evidence he waited for an opportunity to hack” the victim, Crawford said. “There’s no evidence Mr. Diaz even knew Mr. Morales.”
Crawford also argued Berrios made multiple inconsistent statements about what happened.