Paso Robles woman found guilty of murder
Maria del Carmen Granados Fajardo was found guilty of second degree murder by a jury on Monday. She will be sentenced on Jan. 22, 2015.
Paso Robles resident Maria del Carmen Granados Fajardo, 51, was found guilty of murdering her former boyfriend, Victor Hugo Sanchez, 37, on Feb. 23, 2013. On Monday, the jury found her guilty of second degree murder, second degree robbery, and assault with a deadly weapon.
Fajardo was not at the scene of the crime, but the jury found that there was enough evidence to convict her, according to a report in The San Luis Obispo Tribune.
The trial hinged on the testimony of Christine Garner, an alleged co-conspirator. Garner said that Fajardo paid her and her husband, David Hernandez, to hurt Sanchez on two occasions.
According to the case filed against Fajardo, Fajardo met Hernandez in Ceres between Oct. 6 and Nov. 30, 2012, and offered to pay money to have Sanchez kidnapped and injured. Around Feb. 22, 2013, Hernandez met Edgar Ontiveros, Louis Henry Madrigal and Alejandro Anguiano in Modesto and discussed hiring them to kidnap and injure Sanchez.
The report says that the three males were all teens and that they were paid to shoot Sanchez in the knees. Ontiveros is then said to have obtained firearms to aid in the kidnapping. Hernandez drove the three teens to Paso Robles and paid for a motel room in the city. After the teens confronted Sanchez in the parking lot of his residence, Ontiveros shot him with a handgun. After the event, Fajardo paid Hernandez $8,000 through an intermediary. Hernandez is said to have then paid Ontiveros $2,000 in cash.
Deputy District Attorney Craig Van Rooyen said that Garner was the key to the outcome of the trials. He said that the prosecutors needed someone who had firsthand knowledge of what happened and Garner was able to connect the dots back to Fajardo. Van Rooyen said that Garner’s timeline of events was corroborated by receipts, cell phone records, and surveillance video. Garner testified in lieu of a plea bargain. Hernandez and the three teens are still at large.
Fajardo will be sentenced on Jan. 22, 2015, at 8:30 a.m. at the Superior Court of California, County of San Luis Obispo.
