A Merced County Grand Jury indicted three validated gang members on Friday morning for the June 11 savage jail house murder of Aaron Bonilla, who was beaten and stomped to death while in custody for auto theft, said Deputy District Attorney Michael Mckinney.
The indictment is for First Degree Murder, including special circumstances for committing the murder to further a criminal street gang and for murder with exceptional depravity, according to Mckinney who presented the case to the Grand Jury.
Steven Rincon, 27, of Los Banos, Reyes Carrillo, 23, of Los Banos and Alfonso Martinez, 23, of Merced are the three men indicted for the murder.
The victim, Aaron Bonilla, was beaten for approximately 12 minutes inside of a jail cell by Rincon and Carrillo, while Martinez acted as the lookout. Bonilla was transported to a Modesto hospital and finally succumbed to his injuries on June 25, 2017. “For nearly 12 minutes, the victim was savagely beaten by people he counted as friends, simply because he didn’t smuggle drugs into the jail as he was directed to” McKinney said.
When the murder of Bonilla occurred, Rincon was in Merced County Jail awaiting jury trial for his role in the shooting and attempted murder of Merced Police Department Officer Ryan Rasmussen on February 28, 2015; Carrillo was in Merced County Jail awaiting a preliminary hearing for the murder of Edward Ortez on April 24, 2015; and Martinez was in Merced County Jail for his role in a robbery and attempted murder of a 7-11 clerk on November 11, 2016.
“Unfortunately, this is just another example of the extreme violence and depravity that these gang members inflict upon our community, including against people that associate with them. That’s why our office is committed to aggressively prosecuting violent gang members.” said District Attorney Larry D. Morse, II.
The defendants are scheduled to be arraigned on August 29, 2017 at 8:30 in Department 3.
