Jury at work

Deliberations begin in La Mesa murder trial

The jury began deliberating Monday morning in the capital murder trial of Preston Strong, who is charged in the 2005 “La Mesa” murders, in which four children and two adults were killed.

Strong, who faces six counts of first-degree murder and one each of burglary and armed robbery, was previously convicted of killing Dr. Satinder Gill, a Yuma physician, in 2007, and is serving life in prison.

Prosecutors have asked for the death sentence if Strong is convicted of killing 35-year-old Luis Rios, 29-year-old Adrienne Heredia and her children, ages 6 to 13, at their residence, 2037 W. La Mesa St.

After more than an hour of deliberating, the jury sent a request to the judge asking for several items that were admitted as evidence during the trial, including a list of checks Strong had cashed at R.C. Liquor store for cash and a letter a witness had written to the prosecution.

Jurors had also requested two audio recordings of Strong being interviewed by Yuma police detectives. However, since there are actually three, Superior Court Judge Maria Elena Cruz, who is presiding over the trial, ordered they receive all of them.

The last part of the jury’s request was for two of the bindings that had been used on the victims. Since both Rios and 6-year-old Danny Heredia were found to have been bound, the judge sent the request back to the jurors asking them to be more specific.

Neither prosecutor Karolyn Kaczorowski of the Yuma County Attorney’s Office nor attorney William Fox, who co-represents Strong, offered any objections to the jury requests.

If the jury does not reach a verdict by the end of the day, it will return to the Yuma Justice Center on Tuesday to continue its deliberations.

Prosecutors have said Strong knew Rios and that money was a motive in the killings.

During closing arguments, prosecutor Karolyn Kaczorowski said Strong was a hateful person and that he alone had the opportunity to commit the killings, which took place over about six hours.

“That’s a huge chunk of opportunity that is needed and not one shred of evidence has been presented to you that anybody but Preston Strong had that opportunity with those motives and that information,” the prosecutor said.

Defense attorneys questioned the credibility of prosecution witnesses and said the prosecution’s case was thin.