Convicted Double-Murderer's Appeal Denied

LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A state appeals court panel Monday upheld a man's conviction for murdering his on-again, off-again girlfriend in East Los Angeles and a man in Whittier in crimes that occurred just over a decade apart.

The three-district panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal rejected Jose "Joe" Luis Saenz's contention that there were errors in his trial in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, including the rejection of his bid for a separate trial for the Aug. 5, 1998, killing of Sigreda Fernandez, the mother of the defendant's young daughter, and the Oct. 5, 2008, killing of Oscar Torres in a crime that was caught on video.

In their 34-page ruling, the appellate court justices found that "the evidence implicating appellant in the 1998 crimes against Fernandez" and the 2008 slaying of Torres was "quite strong."

The panel noted that Saenz contended that the killing of Fernandez was "unquestionably more inflammatory" than the 2008 murder of Torres because it involved the mother of his child, while the 2008 attack involved "one drug dealer shooting another," but that the defendant "overlooks the viciousness of the Torres murder, where appellant woke his victim up from his sleep to shoot him 11 times in his front yard as he ran for his life in his underwear."

Saenz, now 48, is serving two consecutive life prison terms without the possibility of parole.

At Saenz' sentencing in January 2023, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler told Saenz that he was as "cold-blooded" a killer as he had ever come across in four decades on the bench and 10 years as a defense attorney.

"You have no soul," the judge told the defendant, who is now 48.

Saenz repeatedly interrupted the judge throughout the hearing and told the judge, "I'm innocent."

"For the record, you're not innocent," Fidler quickly retorted, calling the evidence against Saenz "overwhelming."

Saenz was convicted in September 2022 of two counts of first-degree murder and one count each of kidnapping, forcible rape and sodomy by use of force involving Fernandez, along with one count of attempted murder involving a man who was wounded in the shooting that left Torres dead.

The jury found true the special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder during the commission of a kidnapping, rape or sodomy involving Fernandez.

Jurors deadlocked on two additional murder charges against Saenz, an alleged gang member, involving the July 25, 1998, killings of rival gang members Josue Hernandez and Leonardo Ponce, who were killed in Los Angeles' Eastside in what authorities believe was payback for an attack on an associate. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office opted against seeking a retrial on those counts.

Deputy District Attorney Heather Steggell told jurors during the trial that the crimes were "horrific," saying that they had "gotten to see the evil that lives in some people."

Saenz shot his on-again, off-again girlfriend in the head because he thought she had "talked to the police about something," the prosecutor told the jury, noting that the woman was found in bed with a piece of clothing over her face and that Saenz penned a note to his grandmother on the wall in which he wrote, "I love you grandma with all my heart" and urged her to take care of his young daughter.

That killing occurred 11 days after Hernandez and Ponce were shot to death.

Torres was shot to death just over a decade later outside his home in Whittier after more than $600,000 was seized by police during a traffic stop -- some of it bearing a moniker that was used by Saenz, the deputy district attorney said.

"This video is evidence ... that the victim Oscar Torres ran for his life in his underwear," Steggell told jurors of surveillance video from outside the victim's house. "You can clearly tell it's the defendant."

The prosecutor told jurors during the trial that police had never stopped looking for Saenz, who was featured on billboards across Los Angeles, on the local news and on the TV show "America's Most Wanted," and who was eventually brought back from Mexico in 2012 by a fugitive task force after being found there, where he had been living under a different name.

Saenz's trial attorney, Christopher Chaney, urged jurors to evaluate each of the charged crimes separately.

He told jurors in his opening statement that the prosecution's case was built on "discrepancies and outright lies."

Saenz's lawyer told the panel during his closing argument that jurors should expect witnesses to tell the truth, saying, "I'm going to tell you that you did not hear the truth in this trial."

"The prosecution didn't prove up their case. ... The case is built on lies," Chaney said. "I think we exposed them."

The judge rejected the defense's bid for a retrial, ruling that there was no basis for it.

Saenz maintained he had been "deprived of a fair trial."

Prosecutors opted under prior Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey's administration not to seek the death penalty against Saenz.

Upon being informed during an April 2016 court hearing of the decision, Saenz responded, "I want them to seek death."

The judge told Saenz then that it was up to the prosecution to decide what punishment to seek.

"You can't force them to seek death," the judge told him then.

Before Saenz's trial, the judge refused to release the defendant on his own recognizance as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In court papers filed in conjunction with the request, Saenz's attorney wrote that his client was "in recovery from the COVID-19 disease" that he contracted while in county jail.

"He relates that, `This is one of the most serious illnesses that he has ever suffered.' He believes that this is the second time he has contracted the virus because the circumstances in the symptoms of the second episode were similar to earlier symptoms that he had exhibited ... He believes that he is in serious danger of losing his life should he contract it another time," Chaney wrote in the declaration, in which he noted that 717 inmates were reported to be in quarantine the day the motion was filed.