Benjamin Cabrera Briones, 62, of Thousand Palms is charged with first-degree murder, burglary, forgery and special circumstance allegations of killing in the course of a robbery and murder for financial gain in the 2021 death of Jean Grace Willrich.

In her opening statement at the Larson Justice Center in Indio on Wednesday, Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Hawlee Valente told jurors that Briones attempted to keep from getting caught after Willrich’s death.

Valente said Briones wore latex gloves in the hours following the murder, including when he deposited the victim’s check at an ATM outside an Albertson’s supermarket in Palm Desert.

The gloves were “found in his work truck, marked with his company logo, Briones’ Pools,” the prosecutor said.

She said that after a search warrant was executed at the defendant’s residence, shoes, pants and other items of evidentiary value were seized. A notepad bearing names and addresses was also located, and “Willrich’s name and address were the only ones crossed out,” the deputy district attorney said.

Briones’ deputy public defender elected not to make an opening statement.

Willrich was killed on the afternoon of Nov. 29, 2021.

According to earlier statements by a pool serviceman hired by the victim after she fired Briones over a compensation dispute several years before, the witness went to the property on Nov. 30 and found things askew, including windows with blinds wide open and a hose running, causing an overflow on the east side of the house. He became concerned and attempted to make contact with Willrich unsuccessfully.

A concerned friend, Patricia McDonald, went to the house in the 77000 block of Michigan Drive and used a spare key to enter, finding the victim “laying in a puddle of dried blood, her face swollen,” according to trial testimony.

“She was cold to the touch,” McDonald said.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Jeff Cryder testified that after he was called to the property, he initially thought the victim might have been injured accidentally, but on further examination realized it “was a suspicious death.”

The defendant went to Willrich’s property on Nov. 29, 2021, ostensibly to see if he could repair one of her toilets. Sheriff’s Investigator Gustavo Castaneda said detectives later learned from interviews with Briones he never intended to provide a service, but rather wanted to commit theft.

“Mr. Briones stated Ms. Willrich let him in and eventually, when he started looking around, a confrontation started, and that’s when he proceeded to assault her,” Castaneda testified during a 2023 preliminary hearing. “Mr. Briones explained to us how he punched her, choked her and eventually got on top of her. He continued to punch her, hit her with both open and closed fists because she wouldn’t stop screaming. When she stopped moving, he got up, grabbed (her) checks and left.”

Detectives soon confirmed that property had been taken, and that one of Willrich’s checks had been deposited at the Albertson’s ATM.

Security surveillance video images were examined, and authorities identified Briones as the person who cashed the check, Castaneda said, adding that security videotape from homes around the victim’s property showed that on Nov. 29, the defendant had parked there, gone inside and returned to his pickup a short time later.

Briones was arrested without incident on Dec. 3, 2021, during a traffic stop near Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra drives in Rancho Mirage.

He has no documented prior felony convictions recorded in Riverside County and is being held without bail at the Benoit Detention Center.

The post Man Accused Of Killing Palm Desert Senior appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Jacob Austin Parr, 45, is charged with second-degree murder for the 2022 death of Isaak Quintin Ruiz.

Jurors went behind closed doors after the prosecution and defense delivered closing statements on Dec. 19, and they deliberated part of the day on Dec. 20, when Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Hollenhorst gave them a rest period through Christmas and New Year’s. He directed the panel to return to the Riverside Hall of Justice on Jan. 2.

Parr is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Byrd Detention Center.

According to a defense brief filed in April, Parr and Ruiz had been friends for several years, but Parr had only sold narcotics to the victim periodically in the four months prior to his death.

Testimony by sheriff’s investigators during the defendant’s 2023 preliminary hearing indicated Ruiz had attempted to kick his drug habit, trying to detox in a rehabilitation program, but he continued to “struggle with opiates.”

“The decedent’s girlfriend … told police that he struggled with addiction and went from using heroin to fentanyl,” the brief stated. “She said that it was difficult for him to resist smoking whatever substance he had in his possession.”

Court papers said Parr was endeavoring to put his life on track and quit using or selling drugs, but when Ruiz couldn’t find a seller, he turned to the defendant.

“(Ruiz) rejected offers for less lethal opiates and said he would save his money for ‘fetty,”‘ the brief said.

In a text exchange between the victim and defendant in February 2022, Parr warned, “You gotta be careful, bro’. This (expletive) will kill you if you haven’t used in a while,” according to the narrative.

At one point, before allegedly selling fentanyl to Ruiz, the defendant offered him Narcan, an opioid antagonist that can arrest the effects of fentanyl and save victims who have taken a potentially lethal amount, the brief said. Ruiz didn’t accept.

On the night of April 22, 2022, Parr met Ruiz at a Norco restaurant, allegedly selling him an undetermined amount of fentanyl, then the two left in Parr’s car and drove to a nearby 76 Station on Sixth Street, where Ruiz stepped into the men’s room and locked the door, according to investigators.

Parr drove away.

The victim consumed the fentanyl he’d purchased and passed out on the floor. He was in there for two hours before the clerk finally unlocked the door to check on him, discovering him dead, according to investigators.

Detectives ultimately identified Parr as the person who allegedly sold the fentanyl to the victim, culminating in his arrest on July 12, 2022. The defendant has a prior conviction for misdemeanor DUI.

Since February 2021, the District Attorney’s Office has charged over 30 people countywide in connection with fentanyl poisonings.

In November 2023, prosecutors closed the books on the county’s first fentanyl murder case to go before a jury, culminating in the conviction of 34- year-old Vicente David Romero, who was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for the 2020 death of a Temecula woman.

Public health statistics show there were 550 known fentanyl-related fatalities countywide in 2023, a 9% increase from 2022, when there were 503. Data from 2024 hasn’t been published.

Fentanyl is manufactured in overseas labs, principally in China, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, which says the drug is smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border by cartels. It’s 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine and can be mixed into any number of street narcotics and prescription drugs, without a user knowing what he or she is consuming. Ingestion of only two milligrams can be fatal.

Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans between 18 and 45 years old.

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