BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — Returning from a late dinner, a father and his young son were headed to a friend’s trailer in Mojave when they heard several loud, sharp noises. It sounded like wood breaking.
They came upon a man, known to them only as “Youngster”, riding away from the trailer on a bike.
The man’s son greeted him. Youngster just stared. The man noticed he kept a hand inside the front pocket of his sweater as he rode away.
As they arrived at the trailer the man called out a greeting. No one responded. He took a step inside.
What he saw later brought tears to his eyes as he spoke with sheriff’s detectives. All it took was a brief glimpse for him to rush outside and get help.
Authorities arrived to find a bloodbath: three people dead, one seriously wounded. The fourth person died hours later at Antelope Valley Hospital.
It would be nearly a year later that charges were filed, but more than 800 pages of newly-released sheriff’s reports reveal the alleged gunman was identified by multiple witnesses and tipsters soon after the killings occurred the night of April 30, 2023.
Ricardo Reyes-Partida was arrested in an unrelated case in May 2023, and a murder case was built against him over the following year as he sat in jail.
What’s clear from the reports is “Youngster”, the name most witnesses said they know Reyes-Partida by, has a reputation as someone you don’t want to cross.
He sold methamphetamine, witnesses said, and used the drug himself.
He possessed a hair-trigger temper. You never knew what would set him off.
Asked if Reyes-Partida was easily angered, one person said, “Yeah, very easily. Especially when he’s on the s—. When he’s on the crystal.”
Someone told detectives Reyes-Partida once threatened him for telling a neighbor’s dog to shut up. Believing the man had spoken to him, Reyes-Partida walked over and raised his shirt, revealing a gun in his waistband.
Reyes-Partida is accused of prior shootings.
In an incident earlier on the day of the killings, he allegedly shot a man in the head for not fronting him drugs. That person survived.
A spent shell casing recovered at that scene matched casings found at the quadruple homicide — revealing the same gun was used in both shootings.
Still, what could have prompted the slaughter inside the trailer on H Street?
Some tipsters speculated it was over money, or drugs.
But most witnesses — even Reyes-Partida’s co-defendant — said it was over a missing cellphone rumored to be in the possession of one of the victims, according to the reports.
The reports indicate none of the victims had the phone — someone else had taken it.
Reyes-Partida, 34, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder, among a slew of other charges.
Jonathan Hernandez, 26, is charged with being an accessory and attempted murder, among other crimes. He has yet to be arraigned; prosecutors say he has been “medically unavailable” to appear in court.
Hernandez, who has a daughter with one of Reyes-Partida’s sisters, is alleged to have owned the gun used in the killings.
A missing phone, and four bodies
Detectives questioned dozens of people, followed up on countless tips.
They wanted justice for the victims: Darius Travon Canada, 31, Anna Marie Hester, 34, Martina Barraza, 33, all of Mojave, and Faith Leighanne Rose Asbry, 20, of California City.
Friends and acquaintances reported the victims used drugs. They bought meth from Reyes-Partida.
The names of everyone except Reyes-Partida and Hernandez are redacted from the reports, so it’s unclear who Reyes-Partida believed had his cellphone.
But time and again, the phone was named as the motive.
About a week after the shooting, detectives were shown Facebook and audio messages between two people discussing the killings — one of whom apparently had the phone.
“And the truth of the matter is that this all started because of that f—— fone (sic) u had that I had been told u to give back,” one of the messages reads. “In case you did not know it’s all because over that damn fone YOU f—— had.”
On May 10, a tip given to the Bakersfield Police Department was passed along to sheriff’s investigators.
It read, “There was a quadruple homicide in Mojave CA . . . the person responsible is Ricardo p Reyes apparently he killed those people over a cellphone that a girl named (redacted) had stolen earlier that day he also shot another man several times in the (redacted).”
When questioned in June 2013, Hernandez denied being at the scene — but said he’d heard the cellphone was the motive, according to the reports. He told investigators he heard one of the victims was shot in connection with the phone; the other three just happened to be there.
One witness described seeing both Reyes-Partida and Hernandez leave the trailer immediately after the shooting.
He told detectives he jumped the back fence into the east alley of H Street south of Belshaw Street and, “I heard shots.” About seven were fired, in intervals of two, he said.
“He said about 10 to 12 seconds later, he saw a male subject he knew as “YG” exit the trailer, and ‘Jonathan’ exited right after,” an investigator wrote in the reports.
“YG” is another name Reyes-Partida goes by.
The witness said he’s known both men for years. He described what they wore that night — he said a streetlight shone on them as they left — and told detectives it appeared Reyes-Partida had a gun in his right hand.
Hernandez had nothing in his hands, according to the witness.
He said Hernandez seemed “spooked like maybe he didn’t know that was going to happen.”
Whatever Reyes-Partida was feeling, nothing showed on his face, the witness said.
“Youngster didn’t look spooked at all. Like it didn’t faze him,” he said.
Again, the missing phone was brought up.
The witness said Reyes-Partida had previously left his phone at a trailer on the property. He said someone lied to him about who had it.
Reyes-Partida went to the trailer to confront one of its occupants, he said.
“I guess the other three people just ended up being innocent bystanders,” the witness told investigators.
Reyes-Partida is due back in court Monday. This article will be updated after his hearing.
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