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Dominican-born Ethan Astaphan, the manager of a marijuana dispensary in California, was found guilty of first-degree murder in a Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday,\u00a0 February 26, 2024. He and the owner of the dispensary, Weijia \u201cJames\u201d Peng, who was also convicted of murder, were accused of killing an employee and then burying his body in the Mojave Desert in 2020.<\/p>\n
The body of the employee, Juan Carlos Hernandez of Los Angeles, was not discovered for two months after his murder.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors argued that Astaphan, 30, and Peng killed Hernandez because they thought he was stealing money and marijuana from the dispensary. The Los Angeles Daily News reported that the prosecution “presented several WhatsApp messages exchanged between Astaphan and Peng in the two days leading up to the murder in which they first discussed firing every employee, then focused on Hernandez after Astaphan claimed he saw the victim making deals for customers during a shift.”<\/p>\n
It is reported that Peng and Astaphan spoke about making an example of the victim with Peng once saying that he wanted Hernandez crippled for life.<\/p>\n
“The men attacked Hernandez at the end of his shift at the dispensary, Sept. 22, 2020, with video still frames showing Astaphan taking Hernandez down to the floor and putting him into a choke hold while Peng stood above,” the Los Angeles Daily News reported on the murder.<\/p>\n
At some point, Peng injected a lethal dose of ketamine into Hernandez. The men then loaded Hernandez\u2019s body into the back seat of Astaphan\u2019s SUV and, driven by Peng\u2019s then-girlfriend Sonita Heng, took his body out to the desert, burying him in a remote area between Barstow and Baker, prosecutors said.”<\/p>\n
The newspaper further reported that the two returned to the dispensary the following morning with surveillance cameras inside the shop showing them cleaning the area where Astaphan had taken Hernandez to the ground. The two were arrested in November 2020.<\/p>\n
It is reported that Astaphan\u2019s mother, father, and sister traveled from Dominica and Florida to attend each day of the trial, while his wife also attended most days.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never been through anything like this,\u201d Astaphan\u2019s father told The Union newspaper. \u201cAll the families are suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n
Astaphan\u2019s older sister Stephanie Astaphan was the only defense witness.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is not a person who engages in violence,\u201d she said of her younger brother, according to the The Union newspaper. \u201cI know his values. I know his heart. He confides in me. I know his character to be that of a good man.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two are expected to be sentenced on Thursday, April 25, 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dominican-born Ethan Astaphan, the manager of a marijuana dispensary in California, was found guilty of first-degree murder in a Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday,\u00a0 February 26, 2024. He and the owner of the dispensary, Weijia \u201cJames\u201d Peng, who was…","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":318115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,235,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-court-law","category-homepage-carousel","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n