A murder trial begins in Santa Ana this morning for the alleged partner in crime of a previously convicted fellow Orange resident who, while navigating the court process from Orange County Jail, was charged with carrying out Mexican Mafia orders. Joseph Baez, 28, faces a special circumstances murder charge and other counts that could send him to state prison for life without the possibility of parole.
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A jury already found Robert Reil, 33, of Orange, guilty in March 2012 for the same shooting murder for drugs case, earning a sentence of 50 years to life in prison.
Robert Luis Reil Gets 50 More Years to Engage in Mexican Mafia Mayhem Behind Bars
While in jail, Reil was one of 26 swept up in the Mexican Mafia probe.
26 Charged with Carrying Out Mexican Mafia Orders in OC Jail
Baez is accused of plotting with Reil and Christian Galindo, 27, to
steal drugs from a man associated with fellow gang member Amour Villamar, 33, of Orange. Galindo pleaded guilty in November 2011 to manslaughter and gang enhancement charges that got him 12 years and four months in prison. Villamar's trial begins in March on murder, robbery, gang, drug sale and car theft counts.
She is accused of contacting her drug dealer,
Bernal Ezquivel Felix, to set up a meeting in Orange in January 2010. When Felix pulled up around 11 p.m. that night, Baez is accused of shooting him through the window, with the car continuing to move before hitting a parked vehicle. All the suspects/killers left without any drugs in what was Orange County's first reported murder of 2010.
Bernal Ezequiel Felix, 2010 OC Homicide No. 1: Man Shot Driving Through Neighborhood
Baez is
charged with one felony count of special circumstances murder during
the commission of a robbery and for the benefit of a criminal street
gang, street terrorism, and sentencing enhancements for being a gang
member vicariously discharging a firearm causing death and criminal
street gang activity.
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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.