New evidence in Palm Springs quadruple homicide puts retrial on pause for weeks
Jurors in the retrial of a man accused of killing four people in Palm Springs in 2019 have been sent home for nearly a month and testimony put on hold after police turned over new evidence this week.
Jose Larin-Garcia faces the possibility of the death penalty if convicted of the fatal shootings. The first trial resulted in a hung jury in March.
John Dolan, Larin-Garcia's defense attorney, said in an interview Thursday that he was called by the prosecutor at 8 p.m. on Wednesday notifying him that new evidence had been submitted by the Palm Springs Police Department.
Dolan would not say what the evidence is. Asked if it could be beneficial to his client, he said: "We don't know, and it could be. That's the challenge. We think the trial is going in a direction that is beneficial to our client, but we can't play with the unknown with something like this."
Palm Springs police Lt. Gus Araiza said that the department did submit new evidence but did not release further details. The Riverside County District Attorney's Office did not immediately return The Desert Sun's request for comment.
Dolan said the attorneys and Riverside County Superior Court Judge Anthony Villalobos agreed the evidence should be analyzed and the trial should be halted until the significance of the evidence is understood.
Dolan said the jury was excused until Dec. 5 and that he and the prosecution are due in court next week to further discuss the evidence.
Palm Springs police were dispatched to a call of shots fired in the 3700 block of East Sunny Dunes Road early on the morning of Feb. 3, 2019. There they found a vehicle that had crashed into a brick wall; the car contained the bodies of Jacob Montgomery, 19; Juan Duarte Raya, 18; and Yuliana Garcia, 17. Blocks away, Carlos Campos Rivera, 25, was found dead in the middle of Canon Drive.
Larin-Garcia was found under a truck a few blocks away, having removed his shoes and a few articles of clothing. He was transported to Desert Regional Medical Center, which he left hours later. Police eventually found he had gone to the house of a friend, who helped him purchase a bus ticket under a fake name.
Larin-Garcia was arrested at the Greyhound station in Indio before he could board the bus to Florida.
Christopher Damien covers public safety and the criminal justice system. He can be reached at christopher.damien@desertsun.com or follow him at @chris_a_damien.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Palm Springs quadruple homicide retrial stalls with new evidence
