Closing arguments delivered in Desert Hot Springs roommate murder trial
A Desert Hot Springs resident fatally shot his roommate at the apartment they shared because he took too long to move out, a prosecutor said today, but a defense attorney said his client lawfully defended himself against an imminent threat to his life.
Jurors were expected to begin deliberating this afternoon in the trial of Brian Keith Hernandez, 49, who is facing charges of murder, assault with a gun and making criminal threats in the Feb. 28, 2017, shooting death of 49-year-old Steven Nelson, who was shot in the back of the head at the Estancia Apartments at 13355 Verbena Drive. He died the following day at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs.
Nelson had moved in a few months prior to the shooting, and Hernandez soon after began demanding that he leave, along with his girlfriend, who stayed at the apartment on occasion, according to trial testimony.
Hernandez testified that the girlfriend’s drug use prompted him to insist they move out, which he said led Nelson to attack and threaten to kill him. The defendant testified that Nelson threatened to stab him and was shot only after reaching for a blade from a knife block in the apartment’s kitchen.
Shortly after 911 was called, a Desert Hot Springs police officer saw Hernandez pacing back and forth outside the apartment complex. Jurors heard a recording from the officer’s body camera recording device, which captured Hernandez telling the officer “Just check me and cuff me, I shot the guy upstairs.”
Deputy District Attorney Anthony Orlando alleged that after Nelson asked for a few extra days to move out, Hernandez said, “You are gonna get out tomorrow, I don’t give a (expletive). No, if you don’t get out, it’s gonna go down. It’s gonna go down tomorrow night if you don’t get out of here.”
When Nelson didn’t appear prepared to move out on Feb. 28, and instead moved a large mirror into the apartment that night, Hernandez “snapped,” the prosecutor said.
Orlando alleged that just before 10 p.m. Hernandez asked Nelson, “So you want to play games?” Nelson allegedly responded by saying, “Nah man. I’m not playing any games. What are you talking about? There is no games being played.”
Nelson’s girlfriend, who was in a nearby bedroom, heard that exchange and a gunshot, then ran out to find Nelson bleeding on the kitchen floor, according to the prosecution.
Hernandez then pointed the gun at her and asked her “You want to be next?,” according to Orlando. She ran from the apartment and pounded on neighbors’ doors throughout the complex, eventually leading one of the residents to call police.
Hernandez “ended the life of Steven Nelson for nothing more than being a difficult roommate,” the prosecutor told jurors in his closing argument.
Defense attorney Bosky Kathuria said Nelson previously threatened to “put (Hernandez) in the hospital,” then punched and “bear-hugged” Hernandez on Feb. 28 before threatening to stab him. Kathuria emphasized that Nelson outweighed his client by about 100 pounds and that Hernandez was a disabled military veteran suffering from gout that forced him to use a cane to get around.
Orlando argued that Hernandez’s self-defense claims were unwarranted as Nelson had his back turned to the defendant and was about 15 feet away from Hernandez when he was shot. Kathuria argued that Nelson “could have closed that distance in seconds,” making the threat to Hernandez’s life more imminent than the prosecution was letting on.
“Steven Nelson threatened to put him in the hospital and on Feb. 28, he acted on that threat,” Kathuria said. “Brian acted reasonably given the circumstances, and that’s the bottom line.”
Hernandez testified last week that he shot Nelson out of “self-preservation. I was scared. I think he would have killed me. I really think he would have stabbed me to death.”
Hernandez said that though he felt justified in shooting Nelson, he regretted having to do it.
“I just wish the outcome was different,” he testified. “I just wish he would have left.”
Hernandez testified to firing a warning shot prior to the fatal one, but Orlando claimed there was no evidence of a second shot being fired. Two spent shell casings were found next to Hernandez’s unloaded .38-caliber revolver, which he left on the apartment’s kitchen table.
Orlando said that outside of the casings, there was no physical evidence in the apartment of a fight or a second shot, nor did neighbors report hearing a struggle or more than one shot.
Kathuria countered that the forensic investigation was “inconclusive and incomplete” and that neighbors’ accounts were inconsistent and unreliable.
Hernandez also denied threatening or pointing the gun at Nelson’s girlfriend, saying he only told her to leave the apartment.
Hernandez is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
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