Bay City News
A man accused of setting a trailer on fire and killing a woman and her two young children inside last month was arraigned inside a Stockton courtroom Monday.
Fifty-nine-year-old Jose Carmen Cardona listened to the charges against him with the help of his translator as family members of the victims killed sat in the back row of the courtroom.
Upon entering the courtroom, Cardona's eyes appeared to only look at the judge.
Cardona was told he was charged with three counts of the willful, deliberate, premeditated, murder of Lisbeth Gutierrez, 32, Julian Dejesus Cardona Gutierrez, 10, and Juan Jose Gutierrez Salazar, 6. He is also facing one count of child abuse and endangerment and one count of attempted murder.
The San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office also filed three special circumstances for committing multiple murders, arson and torture.
Cardona did not enter a plea and was not given bail.
On June 25, while Gutierrez slept inside a five-wheel trailer in the area of Visalia Court and Harbor Street with her children, Cardona allegedly used accelerants to set the residence on fire, police said.
The Stockton Fire Department responded and found the trailer engulfed in flames and discovered the bodies of the woman and her two children.
Although Gutierrez had been in a relationship with Cardona, the children were not biologically his, according to prosecutors.
At a press conference last week, San Joaquin County District Attorney Ron Freitas revealed that a third child, age 13, had been inside the burning RV as well, but had managed to escape.
Following the fire, police said Cardona fled the scene. He was found last Thursday at a bus stop in Modesto-- it is alleged by authorities that he was attempting to flee the country.
With the charges pressed against Cardona, who is also known by countless other aliases, Freitas said he could face the death penalty.
There has been a moratorium on the death penalty in California since 2019. However, prosecutor Mark Ott said when someone is charged with first degree murder, there are still allegations under the penal code that allow for the imposition of life without the possibility of parole or the death penalty.
"Death penalty still does exist...so it is possible to sentence someone to death and then it'd be up to the governor's office to lift that moratorium and impose it," Ott explained.
Ott said he would like to get the case done in the next two years but there are many things that could delay the process.
"But we will make sure that justice is served," he said.
Cardona is scheduled to return to court Aug. 19.
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