Four plead not guilty to sports complex shooting
Four men held pieces of paper in front of their faces and tried not to peer behind them in a crowded Kern County Superior Court courtroom Tuesday as they all entered not guilty pleas for charges related to a 2021 shooting at Mesa Marin Sports Complex.
Eric Hernandez Faria, 20, Francisco Alejando Garcia, 20, Uriel Ramirez, 21, and Ulyses Zelayandia, 23, were all charged with attempted murder, assault with a semi-automatic firearm, shooting at an inhabited dwelling, carrying a loaded firearm without registration, carrying a loaded firearm in public as a criminal street gang member, participating in a street gang and conspiring to commit a crime. Ramirez was also charged with resisting arrest.
Hernandez Faria is the only one of the four who appeared in court Tuesday who was charged with first-degree murder.
Fernando Ulices Alonso, who is in custody in Colorado and is to be brought back to Kern County, was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder, assault with a semi-automatic firearm, carrying a loaded firearm without registration, carrying a loaded firearm in public as a criminal street gang member and participating in a street gang.
According to the Bakersfield Police Department, Alonso was arrested in Greeley, Colo., on Monday and awaits a transfer to Kern County. However, the Kern County District Attorney’s Office had already filed charges against him as of Friday.
Hernandez Faria, Garcia, Ramirez and Zelayandia appeared in court Tuesday along with a slew of lawyers involved in the case. The defendants are represented by various public defenders and attorneys from the Indigent Defense Program. On Sept. 29, 2021, Kern County Sheriff’s deputies responded to an attempted murder incident where two victims were shot, according to a probable cause statement provided by KSCO to the courts. The victims died from a gunshot to the head, according to the statement. Multiple 9 mm and .40 caliber shell casings were found at the scene, according to the statement.
The four currently face a jury trial for another case as well. On Christmas Eve 2021, the four were suspected of shooting two people at a home in the 1800 block of Kentucky Street.
One of the victims, who admitted to officers that he was a member of a gang, identified Garcia as one of the shooters. Garcia is a member of a rival gang and Zalayandia admitted to being in that same gang to officers, according to the statement.
Deputies found Garcia had a .40 caliber on him and 9mm firearms in the car that Garcia, Zelayandia and Ramirez were located in. Garcia told officers that one of the victims had conflicts with his younger brother.
GPS evidence from Garcia, Zelayandia and Ramirez’s phone placed them at the home on Kentucky Street, according to the statement. Faria was connected to the case because Garcia had contacted him before the shooting, according to the statement. The jury trial for the Christmas Eve shooting is scheduled for April 15.
For the September 2021 shooting, the four are scheduled to return for their next hearing April 18. Faria is being held without bail, while Garcia has a $1.675 million bail, Ramirez has a $950,000 bail and a $500,000 bail.