Two Florida men, including a former Jamaican police officer, who more than five years ago broke into in an upscale Irvine residence that was being used for a marijuana-selling operation, are now on trial for the killing of a 20-year-old man who was shot to death during the violent home invasion.
Dramatic video taken during the 2019 home invasion shown to jurors in Orange County Superior Court on Monday, Aug. 25, at the outset of Andre Andrews and Omar Miller’s murder trial showed the two men assault and bind one man during the early morning hours of Oct. 26, 2019 in the home on Bayleaf Lane. A short time later — as that man is shown escaping his bindings and running for help — two gunshots rang out, followed by a series of screams.
The gunshot victim — 20-year-old Raymond Alcala — soon died from his injuries. Authorities allege Alcala and two other residents of the home were selling marijuana, noting that hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cash and drugs were found in the home, which is nestled within a gated community in the Northwood neighborhood.
Andrews and Miller are charged with killing Alcala during a home invasion robbery. But the exact tie, if any, between the two Florida defendant’s and the men in their early 20s who lived in the Irvine home remains unclear, prosecutors acknowledge.
“There was a lot of valuable product and money in this home,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Lexie Elliot told jurors.
“They didn’t want people to come to the home very often because they knew it was a dangerous business,” the prosecutor added of the young men who were renting the residence.
The defense acknowledged Monday that Andrews and Miller broke into the home and attacked at least one of Alcala’s roommates. But they denied that the pair intended to rob or murder anyone. And they hinted that law enforcement failed to fully investigate the crimes and identify who conspired to get Andrews and Miller into the home.
“They (investigators) knew there was more to the story, they knew there were more people involved, and they probably knew who some of those people were,” Lee Stonum, Miller’s attorney, told jurors. “They grabbed the two lowest rungs on a much taller ladder and they stopped climbing”
A third man — Devon Quinland, of Westminster — has been charged with conspiracy and assault and is being tried separately. The prosecutor described Quinland as “roping” Andrews into the home invasion and Andrews bringing in Miller.
Elliott, the prosecutor, told jurors that three of the four young men who lived at the Irvine home, including Alcala, were involved in a large marijuana business. They kept product and cash at the home, she said, but preferred to send it to customers through the postal service, rather than have people come to the house.
One of the men, who testified on Monday, said they met customers online.
“It wasn’t a drug house, it was a house where we logistically operated out of by sending stuff out in the mail,” the man testified, estimating that he was making $10,000 to $20,000 a month at the time in profit. “We were all doing good for ourselves. We were all making good enough money.”
Flight records showed Andrews and Miller arriving on a flight to Southern California hours before the killing. Shortly before the home invasion, Andrews and Quinland bought duct tape, a crow bar and a screwdriver from a truck stop in Ontario, according to surveillance footage from the business.
Surveillance video from a bedroom in the Irvine home showed two men in hoodies — identified by prosecutors as Andrews, who was armed with a semi-automatic handgun, and Miller, who was armed with a revolver — entering a side door to the home and immediately attacking a sleeping man. The man was pistol whipped and kicked and pushed at his attackers as they struggled to subdue him. They managed to bind his hands and legs with duct tape, grabbed two cell phones from the bedroom, then left the room, the video footage showed.
“How did you feel when you woke up?” the prosecutor asked the man on Monday.
“Fear, adrenaline — mainly adrenaline — and confusion,” the man testified. “It wasn’t until I realized what was going on that I had a second to assess ‘this is real, I’m not dreaming.’ That is when I chose to cooperate, realizing I had blood all over me. In the moment, I was trying to see who they were. But every time I tried to look I would get whacked with the pistol.”
Video from the same room a short time later showed the man escaping from his duct tape bindings and running to get help. Gunshots can be heard from elsewhere in the home, followed by a screams.
DNA — as well as neighborhood surveillance footage capturing a vehicle they had rented and cell phone location data — tied Andrews and Miller to the scene. Prosecutors speculated that Miller fired the fatal shots, based on the weapon he was carrying and ballistic evidence, though both men are facing murder charges.
Andrews’ attorney, Mark Fredrick, told jurors that the reason his client flew out from Florida was “critically important,” though he did not elaborate during his opening statements Monday on what that reason was.
Andrews and Miller didn’t ransack the home — despite the presence of large amounts of cash and marijuana — and did not demand money, their attorneys told jurors. Stonum, Miller’s attorney, added that “the people responsible for planning and putting this together were never brought to justice or interviewed.”
Prosecutors previously identified Miller as a former Jamaican police officer, but did not say what led him to leave his law enforcement career. His background — as well as Andrew’s background — were not outlined during opening statements in their trial.
If the jury finds that Andrews and Miller killed Alcala during a robbery, the two men would face life in prison without the possibility of parole.