Men sentenced to life for 2021 murder
On Monday in Department 17 of the Tulare County Superior Court, the court sentenced Julio Madrigal, 32, and Jose Barraza, 41, to life in prison for murder.
On May 21, 2021, the male victim sat in the front passenger seat of a parked car in Tulare with his girlfriend, the female victim, seated in the driver’s seat. While the two spoke, Barraza drove up in a separate car with Madrigal seated in the front passenger seat.
The defendants parked door to door with the victims’ car, exited their car, and then surrounded the victims’ car on either side. Barraza accused the male victim of stealing drugs, but the male victim denied the accusations. Barraza then told Madrigal to take the female victim in the defendants’ car and that he would take the male victim in the victims’ car.
Madrigal opened the driver’s door and tried to forcefully remove the female victim from the driver’s seat. During the struggle, the vehicle drove forward several feet. Madrigal, who was halfway inside the car, on top of the female victim, then shot the male victim in the forehead, killing him.
Madrigal then took off on foot until Barraza managed to pick him up in their car, and the two fled the scene together. Police later found the defendants’ car, with its windows smashed out, dumped in a water-filled canal in Kings County.
For the next five weeks, police searched for the defendants. When they finally located Madrigal’s hideout and attempted to apprehend him, Madrigal fled but was caught.
In the area he was seen running, police found a cell phone that had been bent in half with its SIM card missing. Although a search of Madrigal’s
hideout yielded a handgun with Barraza’s DNA on it, it was later determined to be a different gun from the one used during the killing.
About a week later, police saw Barraza sneak out of a residence and enter a vehicle. When police attempted a traffic stop on the vehicle, Barraza got out and fled but was caught.
Barraza was wearing large sunglasses and a baseball cap with attached hair extensions. A phone found in Barraza’s backpack was missing its SIM card and was determined to have been factory reset, meaning all its data was erased.
Madrigal had a prior strike conviction from 2009 for voluntary manslaughter for the benefit of a criminal street gang. He was released from prison on October 27, 2020, less than seven months before killing the victim in this case.
Barraza had a prior strike conviction from 2000 for arson causing great bodily injury. Since then, he sustained an additional 4 felony and 13 misdemeanor convictions. On Monday, April 11, a jury convicted each of first-degree murder and two counts of kidnapping.
The jury also found a firearm was used during the commission of the crimes. Just before the trial, Madrigal pled to two counts of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon and one count of unlawful possession of ammunition by a felon.
According to current sentencing laws, Madrigal is eligible for parole in no more than 80 years, and Barraza no more than 55 years. The case was investigated by Detective Matt Muller of the Tulare Police Department and was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Avi Feinstein.