Dream Homes Shooting Suspect To Appear In Court

A man accused of fatally shooting a woman and wounding two men after being denied admittance to a Cathedral City house party is due in court for a preliminary hearing today.

Gabriel Cuevas Cardoza, 31, also is accused of weapons and drug charges in a separate case. Cardoza was free on $100,000 bail in that case when he allegedly shot and killed 52-year-old Mary Ellen Rodriguez and wounded two men during a party on April 2.

Police say Cardoza arrived, uninvited, to his neighbor’s residence in the Dream Homes housing project, and when he was turned away, opened fire with a handgun, hitting Rodriguez and the other victims nearby. The mother of nine and grandmother of 11 died at the scene.

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

Guillermo Cardoza died at the scene. His sibling was seriously injured and spent more than a month recuperating in a hospital.

Gabriel Cardoza is charged with first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. He is separately charged with 13 counts ranging from possessing and selling drugs to being a felon in possession of a gun and resisting arrest in connection with seizures of alleged contraband at his mother’s Cathedral City property last August.

Cardoza, who remains in custody at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside in lieu of $1 million bail, has three prior felony convictions, including one from 2000 for being an accessory to attempted murder, according to court records.

The preliminary hearing will enable a judge to determine if there are grounds for the accused to stand trial.