Man sentenced to life in prison for four cartel-related murders in Orange County

The man from Phoenix drove to Orange County with a cache of handguns, AK-47s and orders to steal tens of thousands of dollars from two men who wronged his employer.

In his wake, the man left behind four dead men, three of whom were shot multiple times and left inside a burning SUV in a residential neighborhood near Chapman University. One of the victims was also stabbed numerous times.

The men were believed to have been killed Nov. 9, 2015.

The fourth man’s decomposing body wasn’t found until several days later inside a car in Fontana, according to the district attorney’s office. He was also shot multiple times.

On Wednesday, a Superior Court judge sentenced 33-year-old Raul Gastellum Flores to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the four murders in what prosecutors describe as a drug cartel-related takeover.

“These murders were calculated to inflict the maximum amount of terror not only on their victims, but also on the neighbors and first responders who had to witness the absolute horror that was unleashed on their neighborhood,� Orange County Dist. Atty. Todd Spitzer said in a news release. “This was someone who took absolute pleasure in carrying out these killings.�

The killings were orchestrated by Rosario Adan Roman-Lopez in retaliation for brothers Edgar and Joel Berrelleza’s cutting him out of their drug trafficking business run by the Sinaloa Cartel, according to prosecutors.

Roman-Lopez recruited Flores to steal from the Berrelleza brothers and kill them if they refused to pay, prosecutors said.

Flores and several accomplices first went to an apartment in Orange where they confronted Fernando Meza, 20, Edgar Berrelleza, 26, and Antonio Medina, 19, who were inside a vehicle at the time, according to prosecutors. Flores and his crew forced their way into the SUV by gunpoint and awaited orders from Roman-Lopez.

During a phone conversation, Roman-Lopez told Flores he knew what needed to be done, court records show. Meza and Medina were then shot multiple times in the head and chest. Edgar Berrelleza was then shot in the head and back multiple times.

After all three men were killed, Flores’ accomplices got out of the vehicle and he continued to drive toward a residential neighborhood in Orange, according to prosecutors.

He stopped on Oakmont Street where he set the SUV on fire while he was still behind the wheel, officials said. Flores jumped out of the moving vehicle and into a waiting sedan, court records show.

A surveillance video captured the burning SUV as it rolled down the street and Flores jumped out.

Just after 2 p.m. police arrived on the scene to find bystanders trying to douse the flames with a garden hose. After firefighters extinguished the blaze, police discovered the bodies of two men in the back seat and a third man in the front passenger seat.

Meza’s hands were bound and he was also stabbed multiple times, according to authorities. An autopsy report shows that soot was found in his lungs, meaning he was still alive when the vehicle was set on fire.

Flores then went to an apartment in Orange where Roman-Lopez and other accomplices were waiting with 35-year-old Joel Berrelleza, Edgar Berrelleza’s brother, prosecutors said. Joel Berrelleza was tied up while Flores and the other men stole safes, money and over $60,000 worth of heroin from the apartment.

Flores and another man forced Berrelleza into his Pontiac where he was shot three times as they drove away. The men recorded his dying breaths on a cellphone, according to prosecutors.

His body was left inside his vehicle in Fontana and it was discovered six days later by a passerby who reported that a man was sleeping in the vehicle, prosecutors said.

Flores was convicted in April of first-degree murder, four special circumstances of murder during the commission of a robbery and four special circumstances of multiple murders, according to court records.

It’s believed that Roman-Lopez was killed in Mexico in retaliation for the murders. Two other defendants remain on the loose and wanted in connection to the murders, while a fourth defendant is now cooperating with law enforcement.

In January 2016, Alejandro Guerrero Ruiz was arrested after he was detained on an immigration hold in Texas, authorities reported at the time.