The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office this week dropped its bid for the death penalty for an ex-con from Sylmar who’s charged with killing five people—most of them within less than a week—during a shooting spree in the San Fernando Valley 6 1/2 years ago.
Alexander Hernandez, now 40, is charged with the 2014 murders of Sergio Sanchez on March 14; Gilardo Morales on Aug. 21; and Gloria Tovar, Michael Planells and Mariana Franco on Aug. 24, along with the 11 attempted murders—the bulk of which occurred between Aug. 20-24.
Hernandez is also facing 11 counts of attempted murder, eight counts of shooting at an occupied vehicle, three counts of cruelty to an animal, two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon and one count each of discharge of a firearm with gross negligence and possession of ammunition by a felon.
The prosecution had announced in 2017 that it was seeking the death penalty against Hernandez, who has remained jailed without bail since he was arrested after barricading himself for about an hour inside a Sylmar residence on Aug. 24, 2014.
Shortly after being sworn into office last December, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon issued a series of directives, including one that “a sentence of death is never an appropriate resolution in any case.’’
Since then, prosecutors have opted not to seek the death penalty in at least three other high-profile cases, involving Kenneth Earl Gay, who’s charged in the 1983 killing of a Los Angeles police officer in Lake View Terrace; Michael Christopher Mejia, an admitted gang member accused of killing a family member in East Los Angeles and then opening fire on two Whittier police officers, killing one and wounding the other; and Geovanni Borjas, a Torrance man charged with raping and murdering a teenage girl and a young woman who were found dead less than a year apart.
Hernandez could now face a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted as charged.
Most of the victims were driving—including home from prom or work, to church and en route to a fishing trip with their kids on Father’s Day—when they noticed a vehicle following them or pulling up alongside.
In most of the cases, the vehicle was Hernandez’s tan Chevrolet Suburban, Deputy District Attorney Michele Hanisee alleged at a hearing in 2016 in which the defendant was ordered to stand trial.
Hernandez is due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom April 15 for a pretrial hearing.
