Judge orders trial for Pomona men charged in triple-murder case

LOS ANGELES - A judge ruled this afternoon that three Pomona men must stand trial for murder and other charges in connection with a string of three alleged gang killings two years ago.

The ruling by Judge Ronald S. Coen came at the conclusion of a three-day preliminary hearing in which prosecutors presented evidence linking the defendants to the shooting death of a Pomona man, the fatal strangling of a Covina woman, and the bludgeoning death of an El Monte man.

At the center of the case is 33-year-old Robert Louis Caballero, an alleged member of Pomona's 12th Street gang and the only defendant charged with three counts of murder.

According to police and other witnesses who testified in the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, Caballero shot and killed a rival gang member, 25-year-old Armando Vidana, in Pomona on Sept. 29, 2009.

Knowing he was wanted by police for Vidana's slaying, Caballero left Pomona and spent the next month in Las Vegas. He returned to Pomona a month later with an 18-year-old girlfriend he met in Las Vegas, according to testimony.

After arriving in Pomona, Caballero allegedly went on a weeklong methamphetamine-fueled crime spree in which he repeatedly beat and raped his girlfriend, participated in a robbery and shooting, and orchestrated the killings of Lorraine Minjarez, 32, and David Padilla, 29.

The other two alleged gang members charged in the case are 28-year-old Pete Trejo, who is accused of assisting Caballero in Minjarez's killing, and 20-year-old Andrew Valenzuela, who allegedly killed Padilla upon orders from Caballero. Each man was held to answer today on one count of murder.

Caballero and the other two defendants are eligible for the death penalty. Prosecutors won't decide until later whether to pursue death, Deputy District Attorney Bjorn Dodd said.

The three men are next due in court April 22. They have not been offered bail. Caballero and Trejo are jailed at Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles, while Valenzuela is jailed at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic.

According to testimony today, Vidana, a member of the Cherryville street gang, was shot 8 times, including once in the head, in the early morning hours of Sept. 29, 2009.

Authorities tied Caballero to the shooting through ballistics testing, and through witnesses who said that in the weeks following the shooting, Caballero admitted he killed Vidana, according to testimony.

After Caballero returned to Pomona from Las Vegas in late October, he and his then-18-year-old girlfriend spent several days with many of Caballero's friends, family members and gang associates.

Minjarez, who was one of Caballero's friends, and Padilla, who was his cousin, came along with Caballero and his girlfriend when they robbed a prostitute the night of Nov. 4.

The night of the robbery, Minjarez told Caballero she knew he was avoiding police because of Vidana's killing, and she made a comment that Caballero believed was a threat to turn him in, according to testimony.

Because of her threat, Caballero allegedly strangled Minjarez to death the following day in an isolated area of the San Gabriel Mountains near Mount Baldy Road.

According to testimony from Caballero's former girlfriend, Trejo kept watch during the strangling, then helped Caballero bury Minjarez and cover the burial site with large boulders.

After he killed Minjarez, he allegedly directed Padilla to place a phone call related to Minjarez's slaying, according to testimony.

Caballero believed Padilla botched the phone call, and he suspected Padilla, an alleged member of the El Monte Flores street gang, might be setting him up.

The day after he killed Minjarez, Caballero allegedly recruited two other gang members - Padilla and Valenzuela - and asked them to travel with him to an isolated area in Chino under the guise of helping him kill his girlfriend.

But when the group of four - Caballero, his girlfriend, Padilla and Valenzuela - traveled to an area where train tracks pass under the 60 Freeway, he ordered Valenzuela to kill Padilla, according to testimony in the preliminary hearing.

Valenzuela at first refused, but Caballero allegedly threatened to kill Valenzuela if he refused to carry out the order.

Valenzuela then strangled Padilla with a shoelace and bludgeoned him with a large rock. The stone Valenzuela used was so heavy he could only lift it with two hands, according to testimony from Caballero's former girlfriend.

The day after Padilla's death, Pomona police arrested Caballero following a brief high-speed chase in eastern Pomona and western Montclair. He was driving Minjarez's car, a silver Dodge Charger.

His girlfriend was in the car during the chase, and authorities believe Caballero might have killed her next had police not located him.