Cardoza Will Face Trial In Cathedral City Party Shootings

A Cathedral City man was ordered today to stand trial for allegedly killing a woman and wounding two men when he was denied entrance to a neighbor’s party.

Gabriel Cuevas Cardoza, 31, is charged with murder and two counts of attempted murder. He was free on $100,000 bail in a separate weapons-and-drug case when he allegedly shot and killed 52-year-old Mary Ellen Rodriguez during a party April 2, prosecutors said.

Cardoza is jailed in lieu of $1 million bail and was ordered back to court Aug. 31 for arraignment.

Jessica Palacios, Rodriguez’s niece, testified today during a preliminary hearing that she saw Cardoza shoot her uncle, Joey Garcia, then her cousin, Freddy Garza, and finally Rodriguez during a 55th wedding anniversary party for her grandparents at their home in the 30400 block of San Antonio Drive.

None of the three victims had weapons and she was unaware of any bad blood between them and Cardoza, Palacios testified. Cardoza had not been invited to the party, which was mostly family members, she said.

“I saw (Garcia and Cardoza) talking and then I saw Joey throw his hands up,” Palacios said, holding her hands palms up at her shoulders.

“Gabriel lifted up his hand and he had a gun in it,” she said.

“What happened?” Deputy District Attorney Anthony Orlando asked.

“He shot Joey,” she said.

When Garza rushed over to Garcia, Cardoza shot him too, according to Palacios, who said she had attended Palm Springs High School with Cardoza. When Rodriguez, who also used the name Palacios, came over, “He put a gun in her face and I saw his mouth moving,” she said.

Rodriguez then turned around to walk to where the wounded men were, she said.

“You saw the defendant shoot Mary Palacios in the back?” Orlando asked.

“Yes,” she said.

Cathedral City police detective Kelly Nava testified that Rodriguez was shot in the upper back. Police said the mother of nine and grandmother of 11 died at the scene.

While walking back to his home, which was about 100 yards away, Cardoza met up with his older brother, Guillermo Cardoza, 34, and the pair headed north on San Antonio Drive, tailed by two unidentified partygoers in a white car, Cathedral City police Lt. Charles Robinson said. He said the driver intentionally plowed into the brothers, and then both occupants of the vehicle opened fire.

Guillermo Cardoza died at the scene. Gabriel Cardoza, who was in a wheelchair during the preliminary hearing, spent more than a month recuperating in a hospital.

Nava said police found Guillermo Cardoza’s body, about five shell casings and a gun in a white Saturn near the crime scene.

“It’s your understanding Mr. Cardoza had been run over by that Saturn, and there was a dead body next to him, and that was his brother?” Orlando asked Nava, who agreed.

Cardoza has three prior felony convictions, including one from 2000 for being an accessory to attempted murder, according to court records.