Man convicted in firefighter’s killing
A man was convicted today in connection with the August 2019 killing of a part-time firefighter who disappeared from West Covina and whose burned body was subsequently found in Upland.
Jurors found Shaun Cardarelli, 42, of San Gabriel, guilty of one count each of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit arson involving the beating and stabbing death of John Aguila, according to Deputy District Attorney Phil Stirling.
The jury also found true the special-circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a robbery, according to the prosecutor.
Cardarelli is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole, with sentencing set next Tuesday in a Pomona courtroom.
A second man, Elijah Thomas Rouse, 23, of La Verne, was sentenced last month to life in prison without the possibility of parole following his Jan. 9 guilty plea to first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit arson.
Rouse also admitted a special-circumstance allegation of murder during the commission of a robbery, along with an allegation that he personally used a deadly weapon.
A criminal complaint alleged that Aguila was killed on or about Aug. 22, 2019, in an apartment and that his body -- which had been wrapped in a blanket and cellophane and bound with duct tape -- was moved to his 2017 Honda Civic, driven to San Bernardino County and dumped off the road in Upland, where gasoline was poured on his upper body and ignited.
West Covina Police Department officers found gloves and bloody clothes in the trunk of the firefighter's car, which was discovered that day in San Dimas, where it had been impounded.
West Covina Police Department Cpl. Rudy Lopez said then that investigators "located video surveillance that showed a male leaving from the car and walking away from it. It was determined that this subject was not the missing person."
Aguila had been reported missing the same day when he did not show up for work as a part-time Bureau of Land Management firefighter, nor return home -- behavior his family described as uncharacteristic.
Rouse and Cardarelli were arrested less than a week later by West Covina police, and have remained behind bars since then, jail records show.
