Pair convicted of kidnapping, killing man over drug debt in Moreno Valley

RIVERSIDE — Two men who abducted and killed a man in Moreno Valley because one of the defendants did not want to pay him debts owed for methamphetamine purchases were both convicted Tuesday of first-degree murder and other offenses.

Adrian Maria Fernandez and Enrique Baltazar Martinez, both 41, plotted and carried out the slaying of Sergio Lopez Fernandez — a Mexican national not related to the defendant — in 2013.

After deliberating two days, a Riverside jury found both men guilty of the murder count, as well as kidnapping and attempted murder with sentence- enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations. Jurors also found true special circumstance allegations of killing in the course of a kidnapping and lying in wait.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Ronald Taylor scheduled Fernandez’s sentencing for Dec. 18 at the Riverside Hall of Justice. He’s being held without bail at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside and is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Martinez’s sentencing is set for Jan. 11 at the same courthouse. He’s also being held without bail at the Riverside jail and is expected to receive a life sentence.

According to testimony from the men’s three-week trial, Adrian Fernandez owed the victim an unspecified amount of money for a series of methamphetamine buys, and he decided to execute his supplier rather than pay him off.

Fernandez and his longtime associate, Martinez, as well as 30-year-old Jorge Ceballos Olmedo and a fourth man who has yet to be identified, orchestrated a set-up to isolate and kill Sergio Fernandez, according to the prosecution.

On the pretext of meeting to retire his drug debts, Adrian Fernandez arranged to rendezvous with the victim in the area of Alessandro and Perris boulevards in Moreno Valley on the night of Aug. 11, 2013. However, when Sergio Fernandez and a friend arrived at the designated spot in a Toyota Camry, they immediately detected trouble and sped away, according to Deputy District Attorney Mike Carney.

Carney said that over the next minute, the victims tried to leave the area, going in circles as the defendants shot at them and maneuvered to block their exit.

The man driving the Toyota, Luis Rodriguez, crashed after he collided with Olmedo’s vehicle. Despite being shot in the leg, Rodriguez was able to bail out of the Toyota and flee the scene before the defendants encircled the sedan, from which Sergio Fernandez was unable to free himself, the prosecutor said.

Olmedo also ran away from the wreck. Adrian Fernandez and Enrique Martinez then forcibly took the victim away in their car, holding him at gunpoint until reaching the rural area east of Moreno Valley known as the Badlands, where Sergio Fernandez was fatally shot in the head execution-style, according to sheriff’s investigators.

The body was discovered five days later.

Over the ensuing months, sheriff’s homicide detectives pieced together the events and evidence, connecting each of the defendants to the killing.

The men were arrested in different locations without a struggle.

Olmedo pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempted murder. He’s being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta and is slated to be sentenced on Dec. 13 to 25 years in state prison.

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