Opinion ID: 2697172
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Defendant and His Associates

Text: Defendant was 25 years old when the instant offenses occurred between December 9, 1995, and January 19, 1996. He lived with his cousins Jessica and Joanne Rodriguez 2 at the Lido Garden Apartments in West Covina. Jessica Rodriguez had formerly lived at the Pheasant Ridge apartment complex with her mother. Defendant had helped Rodriguez‘s mother move out of the Pheasant Ridge apartments in November 1995. Koen Witters, the murder victim, also lived in the Pheasant Ridge complex. Defendant was regularly in the company of three youths, Michael Drebert, Eric Pritchard and Anthony Jason Vera. Drebert and Pritchard called defendant ―Dad.‖ Gladys Santos, a key prosecution witness, met defendant in October 1995. Santos also knew Drebert, Pritchard and Vera. Between December 1995 and January 1996, she saw defendant, Drebert and Pritchard regularly, and Vera less so. One reason she saw defendant so frequently during this period was because she was taking care of a 12-yearold girl, Justine, whom defendant treated as his daughter, although he was not her father.