Jose Vladimir Larin-Garcia, left; his victims: Yuliana Garcia, top-center; Juan Duarte-Raya, top-right; Jacob Montgomery, bottom-center; and Carlos Campos-Rivera, bottom-right. (Riverside County District Attorney’s Office)
A California man was sentenced to death on Friday in an ultimately futile gesture by a judge overseeing his case after he was convicted of murdering four people in Palm Springs five years ago.
Jose Vladimir Larin-Garcia, 24, was originally sentenced to death in February 2023 by a jury of his peers in Riverside County.
That sentence was upheld on Friday by Riverside County Superior Court Judge Anthony Villalobos, according to a press release issued by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.
“The death penalty is reserved for those who have truly proven themselves to be without remorse for actions that are among the most egregious imaginable,” District Attorney Mike Hestrin said. “The decision made today is not one made lightly, but reflects the heinous nature of these crimes, committed by a man who took so much away from so many people, for something so inconsequential.”
On Feb. 3, 2019, Larin-Garcia killed Carlos Campos-Rivera, 25, Yuliana Garcia, 17, Jacob Montgomery, 19, and Juan Duarte-Raya, 18.
That night, the since-condemned man was in a car with three of the victims. The quartet eventually met with Campos-Rivera near his apartment complex on Canon Drive. There, Larin-Garcia shot Campos-River twice, once in the head, and killed him.
As the car sped away, the other passengers in the car could be heard screaming in terror, a witness testified during trial. Next, multiple gunshots rang out, and the car crashed alongside Sunny Dunes Road.
Investigators found all the victims with gunshot wounds to their heads. Yuliana Garcia also had a defensive wound on one of her hands.
Two blocks away from the crash, Larin-Garcia was discovered hiding under a truck. His shoes and jacket were off, and he was covered in the victims’ blood. After being taken to a hospital for treatment of minor wounds — identified as abrasions — the convicted killer would eventually flee wearing his hospital gown. He was arrested the next day, attempting to flee the state for Florida on a Greyhound bus — under an assumed name, with a shaved head and a new outfit.
After being charged with the murders, a mistrial was declared in March 2022. After his second trial, on Feb. 6, 2023, he was found guilty of four counts of murder in the first degree. Jurors also determined he used a firearm to commit the crime and assessed special circumstances — the Golden State equivalent of a sentencing enhancement — of lying in wait and killing multiple victims. The special circumstances are what landed Larin-Garcia on death row.
California, however, has not executed a death row inmate since 2006, when “Kindergarten Cop” star Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor.
The judge affirmed the sentence during a grief-stricken hearing rife with longing for the slain and condemnations of their killer, according to a courtroom report by the Desert Sun.
“This is one of the most difficult cases I’ve sat on,” Villalobos said before sentencing Larin-Garcia to the possibility, sometime in the far-flung future, of death at the hands of a public executioner. “No one here is walking away unscathed. There is no way to make this right. The only thing I can do is what the law provides.”
Numerous victim impact statements were made during the hearing.
“There are no words to describe how this has impacted me,” the prosecutor reportedly read. “How am I supposed to articulate something that has turned my life completely upside down? I had everything in the world at that point until I lost my best friend in the world, my dad. I still can’t understand why you would do such an evil thing.”
