A man who was stabbed to death in his motorhome in 2018 had reportedly saved up a large sum of cash to buy a house before he was killed, police alleged in new court documents.
Police say the man’s son, Jason Cortes, is one of the attackers accused of trying to rob 41-year-old Hernan Cortez before killing him in West Long Beach.
Jason Cortes, 20, has not yet entered a plea to the charges. Despite being in jail, he’s refused to come to multiple court hearings, including the latest one Wednesday. His alleged co-conspirator, 22-year-old Daniel Fernandez, did come to court Wednesday, but he also hasn’t entered a plea yet. Both were being held without bail on charges of murder and conspiracy, records show.
Police arrested Jason Cortes and Fernandez in December after linking them to a rental car caught on security camera video outside Hernan Cortez’s motorhome in the early morning hours of July 6, 2018, according to a search warrant filed recently by Long Beach police detectives.
Hernan Cortez’s girlfriend found him dead inside the motorhome near Harbor Avenue and 15th Street later that day, the warrant says.
The girlfriend said Jason Cortes had been staying with his father at the motorhome for the past month until he’d moved out a day or two earlier, the detectives wrote.
Hernan Cortez had talked about his son recently stealing from him, and the girlfriend had complained about the son “acting weird around her,” according to another witness interviewed by detectives.
When police searched the motorhome, they discovered it was “completely full of miscellaneous household items,” but they never found the “large sum of money” Hernan Cortez reportedly had saved to buy a house in Wilmington.
A valuable gold chain and medallion Hernan Cortez reportedly owned were also missing, according to the warrant
Through clues like security camera video, rental car records, phone records and credit card information, detectives said they were able to track Jason Cortes and Fernandez to Placerville, where they were arrested with the help of the U.S. Marshals Service on Dec. 3.
After the arrests, police said they believe the men intended to rob Hernan Cortez and “the robbery quickly escalated to murder.”
Attorneys for Cortes and Fernandez declined to comment on any details of the case Wednesday.