Convicted murderer sentenced to death
A man convicted of murder and other crimes in a months-long spree of home invasion robberies a decade ago has been sentenced to death.
Miguel Enrique Felix was convicted in March of two dozen counts stemming from crimes that occurred from the summer of 2004 until the spring of 2005 in Desert Hot Springs, Thousand Palms, North Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Beaumont and unincorporated county areas.
In the most serious crime, Felix was convicted of first-degree murder for gunning down Armando Gonzalez at the victim’s Desert Hot Springs home on Aug. 11, 2004. Jurors found true a special circumstance allegation of murder in the course of a robbery, making him eligible for the death penalty.
The same jury recommended capital punishment over the only other sentencing option — life in prison without the possibility of parole. The judge had the option of imposing the lesser sentence.
Felix was among several people who grabbed victim after victim at or near their homes, forced them inside at gunpoint, then tied them up with zip-ties, pistol-whipped and beat them, and ransacked their homes in search of money or valuables.
In some cases, victims were kidnapped and taken to automatic teller machines or other locations to obtain money, while their children or other relatives were held at gunpoint by accomplices.
It was during this spree that Felix and alleged accomplice Javier Rodriguez Hernandez, who has been at large for more than a decade, went to Gonzalez’s home to rob him and shot him repeatedly when he resisted, prosecutors said.
