Man nearly decapitated in fatal stabbing in 2018, CA officials say. 2 convicted
Two men nearly decapitated a man in a fatal stabbing as “he tried to defend himself with a patio chair,” California prosecutors say.
Jose Rafael Andrademembreno, 29, of Mission Viejo, and Edwin Diaz, 25, of Mission Viejo, were convicted of multiple counts, including first-degree murder in the 2018 death of Marcos Morales, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in an Oct. 16 news release.
Neither attorney information for Andrademembreno nor Diaz was immediately available.
“The callousness and calculation involved in this murder was designed to brutalize their victim until his very last breath while striking fear in everyone who witnessed it,” District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in the release.
Andrademembreno’s girlfriend, Xiomara Berrios, was also charged with murder in connection with the case; however, she “agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for testifying in the trial,” according to prosecutors.
Attorney information for Berrios was not immediately available.
Fatal stabbing in 2018
Andrademembreno and Diaz, who were 22 and 18 at the time of the attack, were members of the gang MS-13, prosecutors said.
The pair went to the pool area of the Lake Forest apartment complex where they lived with machete-style knives at about 3 a.m. on Oct. 1, 2018, after prosecutors say Berrios let them know Morales was there with his 18-year-old girlfriend.
Cellphone messages between Andrademembreno and Berrios “show an agreement to kill Morales,” who “was not a gang member,” prosecutors said.
Andrademembreno and Diaz “ambushed Morales while he tried to defend himself with a patio chair,” the district attorney’s office said, adding that the two shouted allegiance to their gang during the attack.
Though he was bleeding heavily from his wounds, Morales “managed to escape from the pool area and ran screaming for help,” prosecutors said.
Still armed with machetes, Andrademembreno and Diaz continued to chase Morales through the apartment complex, prosecutors said.
“Andrademembreno and Diaz eventually caught up with Morales in front of a stranger’s apartment,” according to the district attorney’s office.
Their attack continued; Morales was stabbed 18 times, including through his skull and brain, had his arm nearly cut off and was nearly decapitated, prosecutors said.
A neighbor found Morales hours later, prosecutors said.
As Morales was being attacked, Berrios is accused of chasing his girlfriend and “stabbing her with a pocketknife,” prosecutors said.
Andrademembreno and Diaz laughed as they ran, then jumped in a car before fleeing, witnesses said, according to prosecutors.
Orange County deputies arrested Andrademembreno and Berrios at the apartment complex the same day of the fatal stabbing, prosecutors said.
Andrademembreno’s jeans and Berrios’ shoes both had “Morales’ blood on them,” the district attorney’s’ office said.
“Diaz was arrested three days later at a laundromat where he was putting bloody clothes in a washing machine just after reading an article about his sister and her boyfriend being arrested,” prosecutors said.
In addition to murder, prosecutors said the jury found Andrademembreno and Diaz guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and personal use of a deadly weapon.
“The most terrifying monster is not the one under our beds but the human being who finds joy in inflicting violence on others,” Spitzer said.
Andrademembreno and Diaz are scheduled to appear in court Jan. 23 and face a prison sentence of life without the possibility of parole, prosecutors said.
Lake Forrest is about a 50-mile drive southeast from Los Angeles.
