See the update at the end of this post on the sentencing of Edgar Salvador Luciozamudio.
ORIGINAL POST, MARCH 7, 7:31 A.M.: A jury in Santa Ana found a Buena Park man guilty Thursday of murdering his “father figure” after the older man tried to initiate sex.
Edgar Salvador Luciozamudio, a 24-year-old who authorities have also previously identified with the last names Lucio or Zamudio, was convicted of second degree murder and faces up to 15 years to life in state prison at his scheduled March 28 sentencing.
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Edgar Salvador Luciozamudio Murdered Ricardo Rios or Fought Off Older Man's Sexual Advances?
Luciozamudio had known 47-year-old Ricardo Rios about five months by Dec. 14, 2011, when they hung out together in the older man's garage apartment behind a home on Marshall Avenue in Buena Park.
Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy and Jennifer Ryan of the Orange County Public Defender's Office agree on this: Rios trying to initiate a sexual liaison with Luciozamudio led to a violent argument.
Ryan told jurors Rios was drunk when Luciozamudio arrived and later “stroked” her client's leg and offered to perform oral sex for money. When Luciozamudio resisted, Ryan claimed, Rios became “aggressive” and “pulled down his pants and came up from behind Edgar.”
Luciozamudio and Rios argued in the driveway, and the older man threw a small weight that struck the younger man's car. Ryan argued Rios was the physical aggressor and Luciozamudio only defended himself.
But McGreevy convinced jurors that Luciozamudio, enraged over the damage to his car, attacked Rios by punching him repeatedly, breaking the victim's jaw, nose, orbital bone and several ribs. Rios died of his injuries, which also included brain swelling.
Questioned by Buena Park Police detectives later that morning, Luciozamudio denied having been in a romantic relationship with Rios, who McGreevy described to jurors as “a father figure” to the younger man.
The prosecutor related to jurors that when detectives informed Luciozamudio they found an image of him in a bathtub on Rios' cell phone, Luciozamudio confided he “may have led him on.”
UPDATE, MARCH 28, 12:23 P.M.: Edgar Salvador Luciozamudio was sentenced today to 15 years to life in state prison.
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