3:21pm | A judge on Wednesday ordered a handful of men to stand trial on charges of witness intimidation for allegedly threatening to kill two witnesses who testified in a high-profile, gang-related murder case last year.
The Press-Telegram is reporting that Efren Flores, 20, Raul Flores, 20, Jose Garcia, 20, Jesus Perez, 22, and Bernardo Villareal, 20, all of Long Beach, allegedly threatened to kill two witnesses who testified against a pair of teenage boys charged with murder and various counts of attempted murder.
The defendants in that 2010 case, Eric Benites and Jason Trejo, allegedly belong to the same gang as the five men charged with intimidating witnesses who cooperated with police.
Benites and Trejo, who were 15 and 14, respectively, when they committed their crimes, were both found guilty of murdering 16-year-old Florentino Rivera and attempting to kill several others between December 2007 and January 2008. Both teens were originally sentenced to more than 200 years each behind bars. Their sentences, however, have since been converted to 50 years to life, according to the PT.
The murder and shootings were committed to avenge the stabbing death of Benites’ 14-year-old brother, who was killed by rival gang members at 14th Street Park in 2007.
Rivero, their victim, was an innocent bystander with no known gang ties.
Police said one witness was threatened by one of Benites’ relatives on the first day of the trial during the lunch break. The other witness said she was threatened after the preliminary hearing and before the trial, according to the PT.
The five men are each being held on $1 million bail and are scheduled to next appear in court on May 4, when they will be arraigned, according to the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office.