HEARING BEGINS FOR DEFENDANT IN FATAL SHOOTING OF MAN IN 2022

The weapon provided to the man who shot and killed Ronald McKinney early last year malfunctioned, so the shooter used his own gun, a confidential informant testified Wednesday.

The informant took the stand in El Cajon Superior Court on the first day of a preliminary hearing for Adrian Carranza, 44, the man accused of fatally shooting McKinney, whose body was found in January 2022 in a sparsely populated unincorporated area just south of Rancho San Diego.

Prosecutors say an acquaintance instructed Carranza to kill McKinney because she believed he and his “business partner” had stolen drugs from her. McKinney was 59.

At the end of the hearing, set to continue Thursday, a judge is expected to determine whether prosecutors presented enough evidence for Carranza — who faces felony charges including murder — to stand trial.

If convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, and gun and drug offenses, Carranza could face a term of 60 years to life in prison.

Just before the hearing began Wednesday, the person prosecutors identified as the acquaintance — Brandyce Marquez, 33 — pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and other charges in the case. She is expected to be sentenced to 24 years in state prison at a hearing scheduled for Sept. 11.

According to prosecutors, hikers found McKinney’s body along an embankment on the side of Millar Ranch Road around 7 a.m. on Jan. 23, 2022.

According to testimony, McKinney’s body had a gunshot wound to the lower, left side of the abdomen. Investigators found nine 9mm cartridge cases at the scene.

Detective Eric Garcia said investigators learned that a vehicle McKinney had driven was towed from Marquez’s apartment complex the morning his body was found — and that Marquez was the subject of an East County gangs task force investigation that involved an informant.

The paid informant, referred to in court only by a first name, testified that a day or so after the killing, Carranza showed off a new gun at Marquez’s home and said he had gotten rid of the firearm he previously carried — a 9 mm gun — because he used it to shoot someone.

The informant also testified that Marquez told him she had given Carranza — known as “Chivo,” Spanish for goat — a gun to shoot McKinney, and that the weapon malfunctioned. The informant said Marquez showed him the gun.

Surveillance footage shows McKinney and others at Marquez’s home in the hours before McKinney’s body was found.

Ruben Villareal testified that he was a friend of Marquez’s and that she, her boyfriend and Carranza talked to McKinney for 20 to 30 minutes in Marquez’s room. The witness said Marquez was yelling “a bit.”

At one point Marquez asked, “Why would you do that to me?” Villareal testified. Eventually, he said, McKinney,

Carranza and Marquez’s boyfriend left the apartment.

After Carranza’s arrest, an undercover deputy who posed as another incarcerated person in jail asked if Carranza was worried about possible evidence against him. During the conversation, which was recorded on video, Carranza appeared to show that he used his shirt to load bullets into the gun as if to keep his fingerprints off the rounds, a detective said.

Testimony in the hearing is expected to continue this afternoon.