NORWALK — Trial for the second of two men accused of luring three men to a South Whittier home under the pretense of buying a car and then murdering them for their money has been set for January, officials said.
Briaell Lee, 29, of Los Angeles is charged with the Jan. 27, 2004 murders of Mario Larios, 23, of West Covina, Edgar Valles, 22, of La Puente and Fernando Pina, 25, of Mexico.
A trial date has been set for Jan. 18 in Norwalk Superior Court, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s spokeswoman Shiara Davila-Morales said.
A second man charged with the three calculated killings as well as a fourth unrelated slaying — 37-year-old Cimarron Bell of South Whittier — has already been convicted of four murders and was sentenced to death in August.
Deputy District Attorney Michele Hanisee, who persecuted the case with Deputy District Attorney Todd Hicks, said Bell remained remorseless right through sentencing.
In the triple-slaying, Bell, and allegedly Lee, met with the three victims on the premise of wanting to sell a Chevrolet Monte Carlo for $8,500, though the car was worth significantly more, according to Hicks.
Larios was a potential buyer who went to Bell’s South Whittier home with his cousin, Pina, and his friend, Valles, where they were robbed and shot to death.
A Mercedes-Benz Larios’ was leasing was found abandoned in a La Mirada parking lot three days later. The three men’s bodies were discovered inside.
In addition to the three men killed while trying to buy a car, Bell was also found guilty of murdering his girlfriend, 22-year-old Ineka Edmondson of Compton, on Nov. 11, 2003.
Prosecutors argued that he shot the woman in a La Habra industrial park, where Bell worked as a janitor, because the two were involved in a stolen check-cashing scheme and he believed she was stealing money from him.
Lee also faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted as charged.