La Mesa murder trial goes to jury
Preston Strong could face potential death sentence if convicted
The fate of Preston Strong, who is accused of killing a family of two adults and four children in the 2005 La Mesa murders, is now in the hands of the jury, which is comprised of eight women and four men.
Strong is being tried on six counts of first-degree murder, one count of armed robbery and one count of burglary. He faces a potential death sentence if convicted.
He is also currently serving two life-term sentences with no chance for parole for the 2007 murder of Yuma physician Satinder Gill. Prosecutors weren’t allowed to mention his conviction in the Gill case during the trial.
During his closing argument, attorney Ray Hanna, of Prescott, who co-represents Strong with attorney Bill Fox, of the Yuma County Public Defender’s Office, told jurors that the prosecution’s case is based on four things, and if they have a reasonable doubt about any of them, they must find his client not guilty.
“The state’s closing argument was powerful and persuasive, probably the best I have ever heard, but I don’t agree with it and can explain why,” Hanna said.
Hanna explained that the state has maintained the position that one person killed six people, but prosecutors never proved Strong was at the house at the time of the murders.
However, in what Hanna called a big day for the defense, one of the state’s witnesses, who was Strong’s girlfriend at the time, testified that she thought he was home with her between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. on the day of the murders.
“When one of your own witnesses goes sideways, your case is done,” Hanna said.
A defense witness also testified that although she can’t recall what day it was, she thought she picked up Strong on the afternoon of the murders and gave him a ride to Sanguinetti Park, where his car had been.
Hanna told jurors that the reason why the prosecution’s case relies so heavily on a timeline of phone calls made the day of the
murders, was that it was all the state had after its DNA and fingerprint evidence fell apart.
He added that Strong’s DNA was also excluded from 37 items that were collected from the La Mesa residence, and that there were 17 other unidentified fingerprints lifted from the home as well.
As for Strong’s fingerprints found on two plastic bags on a stand near two of the victims, Hanna asked jurors to make a reasonable inference about how they got there.
“These were not the bags found on the children,” Hanna said. “These are not the bags used to suffocate anyone.”
Since his client’s fingerprints weren’t found anywhere else in the house Hanna said to jurors that it was reasonable to assume Strong could have touched them at R.C. Liquor before they had been brought to the house.
In explaining the DNA found on the steering wheel of the Dodge Durango, which belonged to victim Luis Rios, Hanna stated that Strong used to make bank deposits for the liquor store, so he probably used the vehicle to do so on occasion.
He added that the expert DNA witness for both the prosecution and defense also testified that there is no way to determine when DNA was placed on an item or how long it would last.
When it came to the state’s assertion that Strong killed Rios (his one-time best friend) over greed, Hanna said that was based on assumption and there was no evidence to back that up, either.
“To believe the state’s theory you would have to believe Strong killed his best friend because he couldn’t borrow enough money, and that just doesn’t make any sense,” Hanna said.
Strong, who often helped out at the liquor store, was unemployed at the time, but was expecting a workman’s comp settlement. It is this money he used as collateral for the money Rios was loaning him.
In closing, Hanna referred to two of the state’s witnesses, one who identified him as the shooter, and another who he supposedly admitted the killings to, as information peddlers who only shared what they knew because they wanted to make deals with the prosecution to have their jail sentences reduced.
On June 24, 2005, at about 8:25 p.m., Yuma police were dispatched to 2037 E. La Mesa St. after several people called 911 to report that shots had been fired and a person was yelling for help.
Upon arrival, officers found a man later identified as Rios in the backyard with multiple gunshot wounds.
Inside, police found the bodies of 29-year-old Adrienne Heredia and her four children — 13-year-old Andres Crawford, 12-year-old Enrique Bedoya, 9-year-old Inez Newman and 6-yearold Danny Heredia. Some of the victims had been bound and strangled, and some had been shot.