On December 7, 2018, a Merced County
jury found Pete Valenzuela guilty of three counts of first degree murder, one
count of first degree attempted murder and a count of assault with a
semi-automatic handgun, along with various special circumstance allegations and
enhancements. Valenzuela is scheduled to be sentenced on January 4, 2019
and is facing a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
The case stems from several incidents
occurring in 2012. The first was the murder of Antonio Jacobo on October
7, 2012 on West 6th Street between T and S, in front of Sheehy
Elementary School. Pete Valenzuela shot Jacobo multiple times with a
semi-automatic pistol. That case remained unsolved with Merced Police
Detectives working diligently to collect evidence and develop suspects, until
December 1, 2012 when the bodies of Luis Morales and Benjamin Mariano were
found in the early morning hours near the corner of West 23rd and
Canal. Both had been shot, multiple times at about 2:30 a.m. but were not
discovered until two hours later. Investigators determined that both had
gotten into an argument with Pete Valenzuela over gang issues, at a party in an
apartment nearby. He followed them down the street and shot both to
death. Before that case could be completely investigated, Defendant Pete
Valenzuela, along with Patrick Cervantes and Israel Barajas attacked a Merced
man who had returned from town after completing Navy boot camp and was visiting
the girlfriend of Patrick Cervantes. This occurred in the early morning
hours of December 23, 2012. During the attack, all three severely beat
the man and as he ran for his life, fired two rounds from the same
semi-automatic pistol that had been used to kill Jacobo, Morales and Maria
Merced
Police Department detectives, led by Joe Deliman worked tirelessly to build the
case, bringing it to the District Attorney’s office for filing. The
prosecutors trying the case were Chief Deputy District Attorney Harold Nutt and
Deputy District Attorney Tyson McCoy. “On behalf of the District Attorney’s
Office and the People of the State of California, we would like to thank the
jurors who agreed to sit on this lengthy and complicated trial” stated Harold
Nutt. “Because of their hard work and diligence, we were finally able to see
that justice was done. Hopefully, this will help to bring closure to the
families of those who were killed.