La Quinta Murderer Sentenced To Death

INDIO -A La Quinta man was sentenced to death today for fatally shooting an Indio cabbie in the head during a robbery that netted $80.

Christopher Guy Jasso, 37, was convicted Dec. 1 of first-degree murder for gunning down Carlos Rafael Cuellar Cardona, 30, on Sept. 7, 2003. The cab driver was found with two bullet wounds to the head on Aztec Street about 12:30 that morning.

Fabian Perez, 26, of Coachella, is also charged with murder in Cardona’s killing. He will be tried separately.

A seven-woman, five-man jury spent barely three hours deliberating in December before deciding to recommend Jasso receive the death penalty.

Today, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Richard Erwood ordered that Jasso be transferred to San Quentin State Prison, where he will await execution on death row.

Before the judge pronounced the sentence, the victim’s mother, Maria Cuellar, petitioned the judge in Spanish to ask Jasso if he felt remorse or has apologized for killing her son.

“I’m not going to ask for comment from the defendant at this time,” Erwood said.

“OK, OK,” Cuellar said before continuing to speak through a translator. “I thank God for being here on this day because I was waiting for this day from the first minute that I was told he had passed away,” she said.

Cuellar said she felt justice was served and asked the judge to make sure Jasso could not hurt any more innocent people.

“I don’t feel anything against (Jasso) because God is in charge of that,” Cuellar said.

Outside of court, Jasso’s aunt, Carmen Jimenez, apologized to the victim’s family and gave a tearful Cuellar a hug.

“It’s all in God’s hands if it’s His will, there is nothing we can do about it,” Jimenez said about the death sentence. “We feel bad for the other side. I just want to say sorry.”

“What can we say. He took a life,” she said.

Deputy District Attorney Peter Nolan said the sentence was just.

“It’s never an easy decision to send someone to death row, but it was certainly the right decision in order to achieve justice,” Nolan said.

Jasso’s attorneys were not available for comment. According to the prosecution, Cardona was working as a cabbie and dispatcher for Indio Yellow Cab.

“He was a worker. He had a job at Macy’s. He wanted a better job. He thought being a taxicab driver was the way to get there,” said Deputy District Attorney Peter Nolan.

The prosecutor argued that Jasso and Perez planned to rob the cabbie because they were “hard up for money.”

Cardona was meeting with friends at a cafe on Industrial Place in Indio when he received a call around 11:30 p.m. Sept. 6, 2003, to pick up a customer.

The prosecutor argued that Jasso shot Cardona twice in the head — once in the cab and then again in the street — showing the murder was premeditated and intentional.

He said shell casings found at the murder scene matched others at Jasso’s home, and that Jasso’s fingerprints were found in the cab.

“Carlos Cardona deserved better. He did not deserve to die for 80 bucks,” the prosecutor said.

Deputy Public Defender O.G. Magno told the jury that Jasso grew up in poverty with an abusive father. He argued that his client robbed the cabbie to buy groceries for his family but did not intend to kill him.

Jasso’s sibling, himself a convicted murderer, testified that after his older brother had his own family, he still provided for their mother, sometimes by selling drugs or cashing bad checks. The family grew up in poverty in the Coachella Valley, he said.

“He didn’t do it to get rich, he did it to supply for his family,” said George Luis Jasso Jr., who was convicted of murder in 2003 and is serving 50 years to life in prison.