FULL STORY: Lozada guilty of second-degree murder for Ontario woman's killing

Pictured (L-R): Jessica de la Torre and Victor Aaron Alburto Lozada.

RIVERSIDE -- A jury found an Upland man guilty of second-degree murder this afternoon for his alleged role in the brutal 2003 robbery, rape and killing of an 18-year-old Ontario woman.

Prosecutors accused Victor Lozada, who turned 36 today, of assisting two co-conspirators -- primarily by giving them car rides -- in the course of the Aug. 15, 2003 killing of Jessica de la Torre.

When he testified last week, Lozada said that he granted his friends a series of favors, not knowing until afterward that his friends were in the process of carrying out a plan to rob and kill De la Torre.

This morning in Riverside Superior Court, it appeared Lozada's murder trial -- his third -- would end in a mistrial because of a deadlocked jury, as his previous two trials had.

The jury notified the court that 10 jurors favored a guilty verdict for first-degree murder, one favored not guilty, and another was undecided, said Lozada's defense attorney, Mike Schaaf.

If the jury had been unable to break its deadlock, a mistrial could have been declared this afternoon, as early as 2 p.m., Schaaf said.

Instead, jurors notified the court at 2:45 that they had reached a unanimous verdict -- for second-degree murder. The conviction carries a mandatory state prison sentence of 15 years to life.

Lozada, a Mexico native, is set to be sentenced Oct. 1. He will be eligible for parole in 2018 if he is sentenced to 15 years to life.

Lozada's two alleged co-conspirators -- Jesus Penuelas and Sergio Arias -- were both convicted of first-degree murder. Penuelas was sentenced to death, and Arias to life without the possibility of parole.

Prosecutors allege Penuelas set out to rob De la Torre, his co-worker at an Ontario market, when he learned that her father had saved $7,000 to buy De la Torre a car for her 19th birthday.

In the course of obtaining the woman's ATM card and PIN number, prosecutors allege Penuelas and Arias jabbed the woman with knives. They also accused Penuelas of raping De la Torre and setting her house on fire in an attempt to destroy evidence.

Penuelas killed De la Torre by running her over with her father's car in the Jurupa Mountains, prosecutors said.

The turning point in the jury's deliberations today was an instruction read to them by Judge Ed Webster after jurors announced they were deadlocked, Schaaf said.

The instruction, known as the "dynamite instruction," encourages deadlocked jurors to consider the positions of other jurors, Schaaf said.

"I hate it," Schaaf said. "It's a terrible instruction. But the (U.S.) Supreme Court has looked at it and apparently they're fine with it. I think it demeans the entire process."

Schaaf said that the juror who initially favored a not-guilty verdict was adamant in his position. The final verdict appeared to be a compromise between jurors, Schaaf said.

"If the instruction had not been read, it would have been deadlocked," Schaaf said. "It would have been a hung jury, based on what we know."

If the jury had remained deadlocked, a mistrial would have been declared and the Riverside County District Attorney's Office would have likely refiled the case.

When the verdict was read, Lozada "was fine with it," Schaaf said.

"He's been in jail for six years, as you know, and he, I guess, resigned himself to something like this," Schaaf said.