LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A man whom the prosecution contended was the mastermind of the beating death of a 20-year-old man whose body was found over the side of a mountain road in Azusa Canyon was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench -- who denied the defense's motion for a new trial -- called it one of the "most brutal" murder cases she has seen, and told Matthew Capiendo, 27, that she couldn't understand how a person can do what was done involving the May 2018 killing of Julian Hamori-Andrade.
Capiendo -- the only one of the five defendants to go to trial in connection with the killing -- was convicted last November of first-degree murder and kidnapping.
Jurors also found true the special circumstance allegations of murder while lying in wait and murder during the commission of a kidnapping and murder during the commission of a robbery, along with an allegation that Capiendo personally used a deadly or dangerous weapon.
The panel acquitted Capiendo of a separate robbery charge involving the same victim.
Deputy District Attorney Sarika Kim said after the verdict that Capiendo planned and initiated the attack, directed the victim to be moved to Azusa Canyon, engaged in a group beating there and climbed down the edge of the canyon after the victim was pushed over to "finish him off" in the words of one of his accomplices. Capiendo allegedly told the other defendants that the victim had stolen marijuana from him, but there was no proof of that, according to the prosecutor.
Defense attorney Anthony Garcia had urged the jury to reject the special circumstance allegations and to consider the lesser count of second- degree murder, which would have made Capiendo eligible for parole.
Four other defendants who had been charged along with Capiendo pleaded no contest or guilty in connection with the attack.
Hercules Dimitrios Balaskas, 24, pleaded no contest on the eve of trial to first-degree murder and was sentenced in October to 25 years to life in state prison.
Andrew Williams, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of voluntary manslaughter, three counts of kidnapping and seven counts of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury. All of the charges involve the same victim. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Francisco Amigon, now 25, was sentenced to 11 years in state prison and Jacob Hunter Elmendorf, 24, was ordered to serve six years behind bars after the two pleaded no contest in September 2021 to voluntary manslaughter.
The victim's body was discovered May 30, 2018, in heavy brush about 30 feet down a hill alongside Highway 39 in Azusa Canyon, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
Authorities said he was beaten at Capiendo's home in the 6100 block of Goodway Drive in the Azusa area, where authorities found a large pool of blood on the floor two days earlier. Hamori-Andrade was then driven to Azusa Canyon, where again he was beaten and thrown over the side of the road, according to investigators.
The victim's mother, Desiree Andrade, told Capiendo that she had waited five years and eight months to be able to "call you a murderer."
"... You are a monster," she told the defendant, noting that he didn't do it by himself and summoned others to help him.
"What you did to Julian he did not deserve ... You know that," she said, adding that she had driven this week to Azusa Canyon -- the spot where her son had been left to die -- and that she became "more and more angry" with Capiendo as she stood there.
The victim's older sister, Jasmine Hamori, told the defendant that "it was a very cowardly thing for you to do what you did to my brother and take him away from my family and I."
"Really? Five against one?" she said. "My brother had a long life to live. He was full of laughter, jokes and love, but you robbed him of that. He lost being able to be a father, an uncle, and most importantly, being my little brother. I struggled trying to find the right words to say today and found that was because there is no right thing to say to someone who has clearly shown no remorse for their actions."
The victim's sister told the defendant that the only comfort she will have leaving court was that she has been "waiting six years to know that you will be locked up for the rest of your life."
The victim's younger sister wrote in a statement read by her mother that she was 10 years old when her brother was taken away from her and that she was "disgusted" by Capiendo and happy to know that he would be spending his life in prison.
The judge told the victim's family that she was "very sorry for what you had to go through," telling Andrade -- who diligently attended the court proceedings -- that her son was "very lucky to have you as a mother."
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