Jose Larin-Garcia to stand trial for Palm Springs quadruple murder

Update – 2:55 pm:

The judge has ruled there is sufficient cause to believe defendant Jose Larin-Garcia is guilty. He will be held to answer for all charges in connection with the February 3rd quadruple homicide in Palm Springs.

Larin-Garcia is scheduled to appear in court on March 14 at the Larson Justice Center.

He is being held on no bail.

{“url”:”https://twitter.com/JakeKESQ/status/1101251059261956096″,”author_name”:”Jake Ingrassia”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JakeKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;&#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/BREAKING?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#BREAKING&#lt;/a&#gt;: &#lt;br&#gt;Judge says: Sufficient cause to believe defendant is guilty and will be held to answer for ALL charges in connection with the crime. &#lt;br&#gt;&#lt;br&#gt;Next court date set for March 14. Dept. 3N. &#lt;br&#gt;No bail.&#lt;/p&#gt;– Jake Ingrassia (@JakeKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JakeKESQ/status/1101251059261956096?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;February 28, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}

Stay with News Channel 3 for continuing coverage.

————————————————

Original Story:

A man charged with the shooting deaths of four people in Palm Springs is due back in court today to continue a hearing in its third day to determine if there is enough evidence for him to stand trial following several officer testimonies last week.

Jose Larin-Garcia of Cathedral City, 19, is accused of fatally shooting Jacob Montgomery, 19, Juan Duarte Raya, 18, and Yuliana Garcia, 17, who were found dead inside a Toyota Corolla that crashed into a parked Jeep at 11:40 p.m. on Feb. 3 at Sunny Dunes and El Placer roads.

He is also accused in the shooting death of 25-year-old Carlos Campos Rivera, who was found 30 minutes later on Canon Drive south of Theresa Drive, about a half-mile away from the other three victims.

During testimony last week in a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence for Larin-Garcia to stand trial on murder charges, police said he was found the night of the killings hiding under a pickup truck just blocks from one of the shooting scenes, and was taken to Desert Regional Medical Center for treatment of various abrasions.

Jake Ingrassia is at the Larson Justice Center in Indio for Day 3 of the preliminary hearing. He will be providing live coverage from the courtroom throughout the day today; you can follow his notes below.

In court Monday, Detective Steve Grissom said that after Larin-Garcia left the hospital, he showed up at a friend’s house around 4:30 a.m. on Feb. 4.

Larin-Garcia told the friend he “messed up” and was involved in a traffic collision, Grissom said. About two hours later, the friend went to Larin-Garcia’s mother’s home to retrieve fresh clothing and identification from a wallet. Later in the day, the friend also bought bandages for Larin-Garcia, and a Greyhound bus ticket to Florida under the name “Joseph Browning,” Grissom testified.

“He knew that Mr. Garcia was trying to get away with regards to the traffic collision,” Grissom said. “So he bought him a ticket under a false name.”

At some point that day, Larin-Garcia shaved his head to change his appearance, then the friend drove him to the Greyhound bus station in Indio, where he was eventually arrested, Grissom testified.

Palm Springs Police Detective Edman Escallada confirmed that Larin-Garcia called his mother after his arrest, claiming he was innocent of the crimes and needed a lawyer “to seek his options.” The mother then asked why he was running from law enforcement if he was innocent, to which Larin-Garcia responded he was intoxicated, scared and an idiot, Escallada said.

Larin-Garcia reportedly had a blood alcohol content of .18 when he was hospitalized, according to PSPD testimony.

Defense attorney John Patrick Dolan has insisted his client did not carry out the killings.He said Larin-Garcia knew Montgomery, but he could not confirm any relationships with any of the other victims. Dolan told News Channel 3 last week that Larin-Garcia had been in the Corolla with the three victims.

According to Grissom’s testimony, Larin-Garcia was also friends with Carlos Campos Rivera. Rivera’s mother told the detective that Larin-Garcia was a friend of her son’s, and that the suspect had been by the family home around Thanksgiving.

Larin-Garcia is facing four counts of murder, along with a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, opening him to a possible death sentence if tried and convicted. He is being held without bail at the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta.