Inmates accused in death plead not guilty to murder

CHULA VISTA

Three men who allegedly took part in the fatal beating of a fellow jail inmate while they were in custody last fall in Chula Vista pleaded not guilty to murder Friday in

Chula Vista Superior Court.

Lorenzo Ortiz, 25, Elijah Rivers, 25, and Edgar Rocha, 29, who are all currently serving state prison sentences, are accused along with two others in the beating death of 19year-old Javier Solis Flores.

On Sept. 9, Flores was found inside his cell at the South Bay Detention Facility “with obvious signs of trauma,” according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department. He died two days later.

At the time, the department said the preliminary cause of Flores’ death was blunt force trauma to the head.

Also charged with murder in the case is Marcos Vasquez, 30, who is facing another murder charge in connection with the 2018 shooting death of 26-year-old Onan Loaiza in National City, and Edson Acuna, 27, who was convicted of murder last year and sentenced to life without parole for the 2018 shooting of 21-year-old Navy man Curtis Adams on a San Diego freeway.

Neither police nor prosecutors have disclosed a suspected motive for the fatal jail beating.

Flores, a Spring Valley resident, had been in custody for six months on suspicion of attempted murder, attempted robbery, shooting at a person from a vehicle and conspiracy to commit a crime.

According to prosecutors, Ortiz is in prison for striking a person with a hammer during a carjacking, Rivers for being a felon in possession of ammunition and a firearm, and Rocha for possessing a BB gun, ammunition, and carrying a concealed dirk or dagger.