Trial date set for man accused of double murder In Corona movie theater
A November trial date is set for a 22-year-old man accused of fatally shooting a couple watching a thriller at a Corona movie theater while in the midst of delusions about someone trying to kill him.
Joseph Jimenez allegedly gunned down Anthony Barajas, 19, and Rylee Goodrich, 18, both of Corona, in 2021 at the Regal Edwards Theater.
Jimenez is charged with two counts of first-degree murder, along with special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and taking multiple lives, as well as sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations.
He has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
During a status hearing Friday, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Gail O'Rane scheduled trial proceedings for Nov. 2 after conferring with the prosecution and defense. It is unknown whether the timetable will hold, however.
Jimenez is being held without bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.
During the defendant's preliminary hearing last September, Jimenez's friend, Julian Velasquez, testified that on the night of July 26, 2021, he and two school buddies, identified as "Ramon" and "Carlos," invited Jimenez to join them for dinner at a Corona restaurant before they all headed over to the theater to see "The Forever Purge," a horror film about societal collapse.
Velasquez said the recent Santiago High School graduates had been close at one time, but Jimenez had "changed drastically" after the loss of his mother a year earlier. The witness recalled how the defendant would wander off as he and the others tried to engage him in conversation, or how he would sometimes blurt out irrelevant phrases, murmur to himself and stare into space.
Velasquez admitted growing tired of trying to "babysit" Jimenez, but the witness and his friends wanted to include him in their camaraderie.
While dining, the defendant was already adrift, looking at a wall and murmuring incoherently, before leaving the restaurant and disappearing, according to Velasquez.
He said they didn't see Jimenez until 40 minutes later, when he parked outside the theater. Velasquez noticed Jimenez carrying a backpack and told him he couldn't bring it into the theater, so the defendant put it back in his car.
"He was quiet at first, but he got stranger as the movie continued," the witness said. "He kept staring at us, making us uncomfortable. He was staring at us like he wanted to punch us in the face. That type of stare."
Jimenez was also talking to himself, and at one point, Velasquez said he clearly heard the defendant say, "I can't do that to them; they're my friends."
Within a few minutes of the movie starting, Jimenez left and retrieved the backpack from his car, then returned and sat back down, the witness said. In the row ahead of him sat Barajas and Goodrich. Velasquez testified there was no interaction between any of them and the victims. No one else was in the theater for the late-night showing.
Velasquez said he asked Jimenez what was in the backpack, and Jimenez replied, "a strap," which the witness took to mean "a pistol." He said he didn't look in the bag, but picked it up and passed it to his friends, in a kind of "keep-away" effort, concerned what Jimenez might do with the contents. However, the defendant finally took back possession of the backpack.
Velasquez said he, Ramon and Carlos left the theater soon afterward.
Employees at the venue discovered the victims when they began cleaning after the film ended. The pair had been shot in the head.
Goodrich was pronounced dead at the scene, and Barajas was taken to Riverside Community Hospital, where he died two days later. He was a social media influencer with nearly 1 million followers on TikTok.
A search warrant was served within 48 hours of the killings at a residence in the 19000 block of Envoy Avenue, near Diamond Street in El Cerrito, where Jimenez was arrested and a handgun was seized, according to the Corona Police Department.
Jimenez later told a reporter that he had been tormented by voices and had been diagnosed with schizophrenia but had stopped taking his medication.
He has no documented prior felony or misdemeanor convictions.
