Category: kesq-local-news

City News Service

INDIO, Calif. (KESQ) – The prosecution is expected to rest next week in the trial of two men accused in the murder of a Cathedral City convenience store owner who was gunned down during an attempted robbery in which the shooter fled without taking a dime.

Charles Lamar Campbell of Beaumont and Joel Ortiz Hidalgo of Desert Hot Springs, both 23, allegedly conspired in the 2021 slaying of 61-year-old Chris Sgouromitis of Cathedral City.

Both men are charged with first-degree murder, attempted robbery and a special circumstance allegation of killing in the course of a robbery. Campbell is additionally charged with sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations.

Testimony got underway Tuesday at the Larson Justice Center in Indio before two juries —  one for each defendant.   

Each man is being held without bail at the Benoit Detention Center.   

According to a trial brief filed by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, on the night of Feb. 21, 2021, Campbell and Hidalgo were driving around the Coachella Valley in the latter’s Acura sedan, seeking to purchase a “plug” of marijuana. When a transaction fell through in Palm Springs, the men headed into Cathedral City, where Campbell directed Hidalgo onto Shifting Sands Trail and, ultimately, the Outpost Market at the intersection of Shifting Sands and Ramon Road, court papers said.

While Hidalgo sat behind the wheel of his car, Campbell entered the convenience store, long owned and operated by Sgouromitis and his family, prosecutors said.

Although no one else was in the outlet, security surveillance video cameras inside were operating, capturing almost all of the ensuing encounter between the victim and defendant, according to the brief.

“The victim had the cash register open and appeared to be counting or organizing cash in the register as Campbell walked in … holding a black semiautomatic handgun,” the narrative stated.

There were words between the men, which the video cameras did not record. The images, however, revealed Campbell allegedly raising the pistol, holding it with both hands and aiming it at the victim. The defendant fired a shot while backing toward the double doors, striking Sgouromitis in the left hip, prosecutors alleged.   

When the store owner tried to run away from the counter, Campbell allegedly fired two more shots, hitting the victim in the chest and lower back, according to the brief.

The gunfire evidently frightened Hidalgo, who accelerated away from the location as Campbell immediately exited the store, the prosecution said. Campbell was forced to flee on foot through the residences lining Shifting Sands, and during his getaway, he accidentally fired his 9mm pistol into ayard, where the homeowner was watching, according to court papers.

Sgouromitis’ brother, who had been resting in a room at the back of the store when the shots rang out, initiated CPR on his sibling until Cathedral City Police Department officers arrived and took over, followed by paramedics moments later. However, the victim was pronounced dead at the scene.

He was a beloved member of the community, and CCPD released a statement within a few days of his murder, saying he was a “father of four with strong local ties, who was not involved in criminal activity and died in his longtime place of business.”

Hidalgo’s Acura was soon identified as the vehicle that had parked outside the convenience store, and the license plate was confirmed via Flock law enforcement camera recordings in Palm Springs, leading to his being tracked down and detained for questioning less than a week later.

The defendant provided details regarding what allegedly had transpired, insisting that he was only giving Campbell a ride to get some marijuana and had no foreknowledge of the planned robbery, according to the brief. He was formally arrested at the police station.

Campbell was located staying in a Beaumont motel, where detectives went to serve an arrest warrant, listening through the door as he conversed via speaker phone with his mother, allegedly telling her, “The driver was arrested, and all he has to do is give me up,” according to the prosecution.

Officers ordered him out of the room, at which point the defendant was taken into custody without incident.   

Neither man has documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.

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City News Service

INDIO, Calif. (KESQ) – A pool serviceman who fatally beat a 93-year-old Palm Desert woman during a robbery at her home applied “all of his” force to snuff out her life with the motivation of taking her money, making him guilty of first-degree murder, a prosecutor alleged today, while the man’s attorney argued his client “freaked out” during the encounter and didn’t plan on taking her life.

Along with the murder count, Benjamin Cabrera Briones, 62, of Thousand Palms is charged with burglary, forgery and special-circumstance allegations of killing in the course of a robbery and murder for financial gain in the 2021 death of Jean Grace Willrich.

“She suffered massive blunt force trauma to her face,” Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Hawlee Valente said during her closing statement at the Larson Justice Center Thursday. “He beat her, bludgeoned her repeatedly. He applied all of his body weight on her collar bone. That’s intent to kill.”

Briones, who was both a pool serviceman and general handyman, had gone to the residence on the pretext of fixing a toilet. However, the prosecution argued that his real motivation was theft.

“He intended to defraud, and the victim was an easy target,” Valente said.  

On Nov. 29, 2021, the defendant arrived in his work truck clearly marked “Briones Pools” at the victim’s house in the 77000 block of Michigan Drive at 6:20 a.m. and remained for almost exactly 50 minutes — a time frame that sheriff’s detectives were able to confirm relying on tape from security surveillance video cameras at neighbors’ properties, according to the prosecution.

Valente alleged he wore latex gloves during and after the murder. Pieces of the gloves were located inside the house.   

After leaving the property, Briones drove to an ATM outside an Albertson’s supermarket in Palm Desert and deposited one of her checks into his business account, according to the prosecution.

Deputy Public Defender Richard Verlato acknowledged, “There’s no question Mr. Briones is guilty of the fraudulent check,” but he challenged the prosecution’s contention that his client was “guilty beyond a reasonable doubt” of killing for financial gain.

The attorney asserted Briones did not have an intent to kill when he arrived at the home — to which he’d been invited — but in the course of speaking with Willrich, “he freaked out,” causing him to lose control and fatally assault the woman, for whom he had once worked to maintain her pool until she fired him over a payment dispute.   

“It’s inconclusive how much pressure he applied to her,” Verlato said, insisting that the most his client could be convicted of was second-degree murder.

On Nov. 30, 2021, a concerned friend, Patricia McDonald, went to the victim’s house and used a spare key to enter, finding the victim “laying in a puddle of dried blood, her face swollen,” according to trial testimony.   

Sheriff’s Investigator Gustavo Castaneda testified previously that during an interview with Briones, the defendant admitted turning hostile when Willrich started questioning why he was walking around her home and not fixing the toilet.

“That’s when he proceeded to assault her,” Castaneda said. “Mr. Briones explained to us how he punched her, choked her and eventually got on top of her. He continued to punch her, hit her with both open and closed fists because she wouldn’t stop screaming. When she stopped moving, he got up, grabbed (her) checks and left.”   

Valente said that after a search warrant was executed at the defendant’s residence, bloodstained shoes, a shirt, pants and other items of evidentiary value were seized. A notepad bearing names and addresses was also located, and “Willrich’s name and address were the only ones crossed out,” the deputy district attorney said.   

Briones was arrested without incident on Dec. 3, 2021, during a traffic stop near Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra drives in Rancho Mirage.   

Superior Court Judge Anthony Villalobos directed jurors to return to the Indio courthouse Friday to commence deliberations in the two-week trial.   

Briones, who has no documented prior felony convictions recorded in Riverside County, is being held without bail at the Benoit Detention Center.

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