Opinion ID: 1293219
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Hernandez's Testimony

Text: Hernandez began working for defendant at his furniture refinishing shop in 1981. He was paid in food, beer, lodging and occasional spending money. He lived in defendant's boat that was parked behind the shop. Hernandez drank beer throughout each day. After Hernandez had been working for defendant for almost eight months, defendant asked him to have a coworker drive Hernandez to his house in Costa Mesa. When Hernandez arrived, he saw an unconscious naked woman lying on a sofa bed in the living room. Defendant told Hernandez he had drugged the woman. He instructed Hernandez to take off his clothes so he could take pictures of Hernandez with the woman. Hernandez removed his clothing, and posed with the woman. Defendant told Hernandez to insert a baton inside the woman's vagina, but it would not fit. Instead, Hernandez put butter on the object and inserted it inside her rectum. Defendant then told Hernandez to place his penis in the woman's mouth so that defendant could take a picture. When the woman awoke three days later, defendant and Hernandez let her go. On the day of the murders the two victims met defendant and Hernandez in a 7-Eleven parking lot. The foursome drove, in defendant's car, to the desert south of Indio. [1] During the drive, Hernandez drank beer, and he and Kreuger smoked marijuana. When they arrived at the desert, Kreuger and Hernandez smoked more marijuana, and Hernandez followed defendant's instructions to lay a sheet on the ground and prepare rum and Cokes for the four of them. After the foursome relaxed for an hour, defendant instructed the victims to remove their clothing. Kreuger asked defendant if she could see the money, and defendant showed her a $100 bill. Defendant then gave Hernandez a rope (which, Hernandez testified, was a bit thicker than venetian blind cord) and told him to tie up the victims. Hernandez tied their feet at the ankles and then tied their hands behind their backs. When Kreuger asked defendant where he kept the camera, he and Hernandez walked to the car, where defendant retrieved a rifle from the trunk. Hernandez testified that he became scared when he saw the gun. On returning to the victims, defendant put a clip in the rifle and told them [h]ere's the camera. He then told the victims to make love to each other. Hernandez testified that for the next 10 to 15 minutes, defendant paced back and forth, shouting instructions first to one victim, and then to the other. He ordered one victim (Hernandez could not remember whether it was Jones or Kreuger) to kiss the other's feet, and then stated he wanted some tongue on her crotch. When the victims requested a drink, Hernandez gave them each a sip of soda. Hernandez recalled that he continued to drink alcohol during the time defendant was shouting instructions to the victims, because he was afraid of defendant. Hernandez testified that after he gave the women a drink, defendant cut Kreuger on the neck with a razor blade and sucked on the open wound for about 10 minutes. When defendant stopped sucking the cut, he retrieved a beer from the cooler and told Hernandez that the women just couldn't go back. Thereafter, defendant told the victims to suck on his penis, while they remained in a kneeling position. The victims next began to orally copulate Hernandez. When he was unable to sustain an erection, he told defendant that he had to urinate. As he squatted to defecate behind a bush, Hernandez heard one of the victims yell Leave her alone! Hernandez stated that as he walked back toward the victims, he saw defendant choking Jones. He also noticed that Kreuger was dead, blood spurting from her mouth. Hernandez claimed he attempted to knock defendant off of Jones, but that defendant knocked him down instead. According to Hernandez, he was too messed up, after using drugs and drinking beer, to stop defendant. After choking Jones, defendant hit her with the wooden butt of his rifle, killing her. Defendant then told Hernandez that the heat was bothering him, and he wanted to get a drink at a bar in town. Hernandez covered the victims with a sheet and hid their bodies behind a bush before the two men went to a bar in Borrego Springs, where they consumed several drinks each. When they returned to the desert, defendant told Hernandez to untie the ropes and to remove all jewelry from the victims (along with anything else that could be used to identify them). Defendant told Hernandez the items would be thrown away on the trip back to Orange County. He also told Hernandez to dig a grave and to bury the bodies. Defendant then left the scene for an hour while Hernandez followed his instructions. When defendant returned to the desert, the two men drove to Borrego Springs where they placed the sheets, ropes and the victims' clothing in a dumpster behind a market. The men then drove back to defendant's shop. The next day, defendant instructed Hernandez to return to the murder site to find the razor blade that he used to cut Kreuger's neck. Hernandez did as he was told, but failed to find the blade. When Hernandez returned to the shop, he found it locked. Defendant told him that someone had called the shop and asked for Jack and that unknown persons had tried to break in. Defendant instructed Hernandez that if the burglars returned, he was to call the Garden Grove police at a certain number. Defendant then gave Hernandez a rifle and told him, Anybody comes, shoot at them. According to Hernandez, defendant told him to sleep on a glue table inside the shop. After defendant left the shop, a woman called and asked for Jack. Later that evening, Hernandez called the police after he was awakened by a noise on the roof. According to Hernandez, at least one officer believed that those attempting to break into defendant's shop were angry over a drug burn. The next day, Hernandez and defendant were questioned at the Garden Grove Police Department about the disappearances of Kreuger and Jones. Hernandez recited an alibi that defendant had concocted a few days before the murders, telling the authorities that on the day of the murders the two men spent the day fishing in Oceanside and then traveled to Corona to search for Hernandez's brother, whom they never found. That evening, defendant and Hernandez drove north, arriving several days later in Victoria, Canada, where they both obtained employment at Strong's Furniture Refinishing Shop. Approximately six weeks later, defendant told Strong he was leaving for Seattle to seek medical attention for gout in his leg. Instead, defendant and Hernandez drove to Reno, Nevada, where they bought a car in order to trade its license plates with those on defendant's car. Two days later, they drove to the murder site to check the grave. Toward the end of 1982, defendant and Hernandez returned to Victoria with a man named Bob. Defendant instructed Bob to provide Hernandez food and shelter. Defendant then left, his destination unknown to Hernandez. While in Canada, Hernandez was questioned by Canadian detectives about the disappearance of the victims, on several occasions. At one point, Hernandez declined offers of immunity and Canadian citizenship in exchange for his testimony. The bodies of Kreuger and Jones were discovered in the Anza-Borrego National Park by a photographer and his wife during the 1983 Easter holidays. Once the burial site was excavated, police collected human teeth, hair, barrettes and bones. Forensic odontologist Norman Sperber examined the skulls found at the site and two weeks later the skeletal remains were matched with the victims' dental charts and X-rays. Meanwhile, Hernandez had returned to Orange County. After defendant and Hernandez discovered that the grave site had been disturbed, and that warrants had been issued for their arrest, they traveled to Loreto, Mexico. Defendant left Loreto after spending three weeks hiding from the authorities. Hernandez stayed in the city for approximately 10 months before he was taken into custody by Mexican authorities, who had been told by American police detectives (Johnson and Martinez of the Anaheim Police Department) that Hernandez was wanted in the United States. Apparently, as discussed further below, before he spoke to the American officers Hernandez had confessed the murders to the Mexican authorities after they beat him. Hernandez was then turned over to Detective Johnson, who did not question Hernandez regarding the murders on the return trip to the United States. Defendant was eventually arrested in North Las Vegas, Nevada, in February 1984. Shortly after his arrest, he signed a waiver of extradition and was returned to California. Both defendant and Hernandez were charged with murder (§ 187) and conspiracy to commit prostitution (§ 647, subd. (b)).