*CRIMINAL CASE UPDATE*
RIVERSIDE MAN FOUND GUILTY OF GANG-EXECUTION MURDER

RIVERSIDE - A Riverside County jury has found a Riverside man guilty of first-degree murder for the 2004 gang-execution killing of Jorge Ortiz.

George Anthony Hernandez Jr, 33, was convicted on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2009, of murder with a special circumstance of lying in wait. He was also convicted of conspiracy to commit a crime and soliciting to commit murder.

District Attorney Rod Pacheco is seeking the death penalty for Hernandez.

The same jury will now return to court on Monday, Aug. 24, 2009, to hear testimony in the penalty phase of the trial. Jurors will then decide whether Hernandez should be sentenced to death or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

On July 26, 2004, Hernandez and the victim left a Riverside bar together and Hernandez invited Ortiz to "check out his new Impala." Ortiz leaned into the car and Hernandez pulled a 9mm handgun and shot Ortiz through the top of his head. As the victim fell back, Hernandez shot him in the forehead, then three more times in the chest.

The investigation revealed the shooting was a gang hit at the direction of either the Mexican Mafia or the Arlanza 13 criminal street gang in Riverside, of which Hernandez is a documented member. Ortiz was executed because he was believed to have been a snitch.

After Hernandez's arrest, investigators uncovered an illicit affair between Hernandez and a female sheriff's deputy who was assigned to the Robert Presley Detention Center where the defendant was housed. Through a series of letters and phone calls, Hernandez and the nowformer deputy, Angela Parks, repeatedly professed their love for one another and Parks told him she would do whatever she could to help his case. There is evidence that Parks assisted Hernandez in a conspiracy to murder the witnesses against him in the Ortiz murder, as well as for her to smuggle methamphetamine into the jail for Hernandez. Parks was arrested and is facing charges including conspiracy to solicit to commit murder. She was held to answer at a 2005 preliminary hearing and is still awaiting trial.

The Hernandez trial is being held before Judge Paul Zellerbach in Dept. 44 at the Hall of Justice, 4100 Main St., Riverside. The case, RIF119969, is being prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Michael Hestrin.