Man convicted of killing two Palm Springs police officers sentenced to death
A man convicted of killing two Palm Springs Police Officers was sentenced to death on Friday.
On October 8, 2016, Palm Springs Police Officers Jose “Gil” Vega, 63, and Lesley Zerebny, 27, were shot and killed by John Hernandez Felix, 28, with an AR-15 rifle during a domestic disturbance call at Felix’s family home on the 2700 block of Cypress Avenue.
Initially, Judge Villalobos issued a sentence relating to the attempted murders and of other PSPD officers and other charges, which totaled 368 years in prison. A short time later, the judge issued the sentence for the murders of Vega and Zerebny, which was death.
A jury found Felix guilty on all 11 counts for the murders of both officers on May 20, 2019.
Felix was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, 6 counts of attempted murder of a peace officer, a charge of unlawful possession of an assault weapon, a charge of unlawful possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, and a charge of unlawful possession of ammunition by a prohibited person.
Jake Ingrassia was in Indio court for the sentencing on Friday – follow his notes from court below.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/JakeKESQ/status/1167469031676248064″,”author_name”:”Jake Ingrassia”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/JakeKESQ”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;FELIX SENTENCING THREAD: Convicted on all counts in the PSPD murder trial, including the murders of officers 'Gil' Vega and Lesley Zerebny, John Felix is being sentenced today. He could face the death penalty. &#lt;br&#gt;&#lt;br&#gt;MORE: &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/vHvwEUGy81″&#gt;https://t.co/vHvwEUGy81&#lt;/a&#gt; &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/OYjpmC9XMY”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/OYjpmC9XMY&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;— Jake Ingrassia (@JakeKESQ) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/JakeKESQ/status/1167469031676248064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;August 30, 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″}
He was also found guilty of the special circumstance allegations of murdering police officers and committing multiple murders, which made him eligible for the death penalty.
Our Complete Coverage of the Felix Trial
Over a week after he was found guilty, the jury recommended Felix receive the death penalty.
News Channel 3’s Jake Ingrassia will be inside the courtroom during Felix’s sentencing. Watch News Channel 3 at Noon, 5 and 6 p.m. for live coverage with the latest updates.
Vega and Zerebny were the first Palm Springs police officers killed in the line of duty since Jan. 1, 1962.
Zerebny was with the department for 18 months and had just returned to duty following maternity leave, having given birth to a daughter, Cora, four months earlier. She is survived by Cora and her husband Zack Zerebny, a Riverside County Sheriff’s Deputy.
Vega has been with the Palm Springs Police Department for 35 years, five years past his retirement eligibility, and had planned to retire just two months prior to his death. He is survived by his eight children, 11 grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, and his wife.
Earlier this week, PSPD officers continued their now yearly tradition of escorting Vega’s youngest daughter to school on her first day of class.
Stay with News Channel 3 for continuing coverage.
