A 36-year-old man was convicted today of murdering–and nearly decapitating–his neighbor at a San Juan Capistrano mobile home park because the killer's mother wrongly outed the victim as a child molester.
Robert Eugene Vasquez, who a jury today also found guilty of assaulting a second man while on the run, faces life without the possibility of parole at his Aug. 23 sentencing in Santa Ana.
]
Vasquez waited in the bushes outside Bobby Ray Rainwater Jr.'s home the morning of Dec. 1, 2011, to kill the registered sex offender whose crime, despite what Vasquez's mother had said, did not involve children. Rainwater, who helped people around the park with chores, had also said something to Vasquez's girlfriend, who could not make it out but said she felt uncomfortable.
When 54-year-old Rainwater stepped out of the mobile home he shared with his parents for a smoke, Vasquez jumped him, punched the back of his head and then stabbed him several times.
The attacker fled, and when Orange County sheriff's deputies arrived, Rainwater's head was only barely attached to the body.
Bobby Ray Rainwater Jr., 2011 OC Homicide No. 57: Body Found Outside His Mobile Home
Two days later, Vasquez was at the San Juan Capistrano home of his friend Lance Lyons. Vasquez went uninvited into the room of the 44-year-old's grandmother, who did not recognize the man and told her grandson the encounter spooked her. Lyons told Vasquez not to go into grandma's room anymore, which prompted Vasquez to pick up a metal mallet and smash in his friend's face.
Vasquez had to be stopped by Lyons' brother from taking a second swing. The first strike had already caused major injuries to Lyons' nose and mouth.
It was revealed during the trial that Vasquez left San Juan Capistrano for refuge in the homes of childhood friends in San Clemente, where one eventually turned him in. He was arrested the same day as the Lyons' attack, and investigators soon linked him to the earlier murder of Rainwater.
The defense did not dispute Vasquez killed Rainwater, but attorneys argued for a conviction on lesser than first-degree murder.
Besides the false accusation from Vasquez's mother, a sexual assault victim, neighbors had warned him to lock his doors because of Rainwater, defense attorneys said in court.
“I like to try to protect my family. … He's not going to go in there and rape my [expletive] chick,” Vasquez had explained to investigators.
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
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.
Sorry to hear him in this situation but at the same time killing incels sounds honorable but rife with paranoia.
I knew this guy Robert from highschool. His mom is friends with my mom. Ther was more going on with the neighbor then what this article describes. Sad
They were having issues the guy that was murdered was I guess poking the bear is what his mom would tell mine.
Not that I’m condoning what happened.
Sadly people like Robert Eugene Vasquez have to deal with long term paranoia when vigilantes kill somebody based on an allegation. Vigilantes who kill rapists, Misogynists, Incels, Pedophiles and Child Molesters end up more paranoid because they felt the courts were blaming them for being the hero. Yes Hero blaming is an issue here because people like Vasquez thought they were preventing another person for being victimized by the people they killed. Hope he gets pardoned.
Sorry to think that there are more people damaged than even the victims of the abuse.
Great web site! It looks very good! Keep up the great job! Solicita viranet bajo prescripción médica
Great looking internet site. Assume you did a whole lot of your very own coding. puoi acquistare mebeverine senza prescrizione a Napoli