UPDATE, APRIL 14, 6 A.M.: The brother of the girlfriend of the late Paul William Guzman is accused of fatally shooting the 39-year-old Santa Ana resident Wednesday and then fleeing to Mexico. Adan Rodriguez Leon is scheduled to be arraigned today on one felony count of murder, according to the Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA), which is seeking $5 million bail. The 32-year-old Santa Ana resident was stopped by a traffic cop in Mexico on Friday, held on the murder arrest warrant and turned over to Santa Ana detectives Sunday morning, authorities say.
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A conviction could send Leon to state prison for 52 years to life, according to the OCDA, which has also filed sentencing enhancements against him for personal discharge of a firearm causing death and previously being convicted of possession of a loaded firearm by an active participant in a criminal street gang in 2008 and sale or transportation of a controlled substance in 2010. Leon is accused of going to his sister's Santa Ana home around 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday and confronting Guzman, who had been arguing with the alleged gunman over a “family dispute,” Cpl. Anthony Bertagna, the Santa Ana Police spokesman, told City News Service. Outside the home, Guzman was shot multiple times in the upper body before Leon allegedly fled the scene.
ORIGINAL POST, APRIL 9, 1:35 P.M.: The Santa Ana Police Department put out the word that they are trying to find the murderer of Paul William Guzman.
The 39-year-old Santa Ana resident was apparently in a simmering argument with an acquaintance known to police before Guzman was found suffering from several gunshot wounds in the 1100 block of West Chestnut around 2:40 p.m. Wednesday, police say. “The suspect fled the area on foot and is currently being sought by [homicide] detectives,” reads a Santa Ana Police advisory. “The suspect's name is being withheld at this time due to ongoing efforts by law enforcement to locate him.”
Orange County Fire Authority paramedics arrived at the shooting scene to treat the multiple wounds to Guzman's upper torso before taking him to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where he later died of his injuries.
Police say they recovered a handgun believed to have been used in the shooting near the crime scene.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.