Teen Officially Charged In Hemet Murder

MURIETTA – A teenager was charged with murder today in the death of a 17-year-old boy who was shot to death, dismembered and burned in a backyard bonfire in Hemet. He pleaded not guilty in court, this afternoon.

Jose Manuel Campos, 18, who was 17 at the time of Adrian Rios’ Nov. 15 murder, will be tried as an adult, according to John Hall, with the District Attorney’s Office.

He also faces a sentence-enhancing allegation of personally discharging a firearm.

Campos and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Felicia Sharp, were returned to Riverside County Wednesday, after being on the lam since November in Mexico.

He and Sharp, who is to be charged as an accessory, were picked up in Mexicali Tuesday night.

Rios was shot with a .22-caliber pistol before his body was dismembered and thrown into a backyard fire pit.

Campos is the suspected shooter and Sharp is accused of helping him dispose of Rios’ body, said Hemet police Lt. Duane Wisehart.

“This was an especially horrific crime in that the victim was shot and then his body dismembered and burned in the backyard of the residence,” Wisehart said.

Campos was booked on suspicion of murder, as well as vehicle code violations, and was being held on $2 million bail.

Sharp was expected to be charged as an accessory to murder and was being held without bail in Juvenile Hall.

Police have said they believe at least six people were at the house around the time Rios was killed.

Investigators who searched the property recovered a machete and a Hemet Police Department ticket issued to Jose Campos, among other items.