Suspect to face trial on murder charge for 2013 killing
A 23-year-old man accused of beating his uncle’s grandfather to death with a hammer in the man’s Glendale home was held to answer Wednesday to one count of murder.
A judge ruled there was enough evidence to proceed with a trial against James Adrian Sanchez, who is suspected of beating 84-year-old Ruben Sanchez to death on Nov. 18, 2013, just days after a fight that prompted the younger Sanchez and his fiancé, Anita Guadarrama, to move out of the apartment the three had shared.
The conflict began after Ruben Sanchez accused Guadarrama of stealing money that he’d hid around the home. According to Guadarrama, the accusations started after she confronted him about offensive comments he would make about women on television.
After the third — and last — time he accused her of stealing, an argument ensued in which James Sanchez defended his partner of four years. The argument ended with the couple moving out of the Glendale apartment, located in the 1800 block of West Glenoaks Boulevard, and into a friend’s home in El Cajon.
“I’m going to leave it in God’s hands,” James Sanchez said in Spanish on his way out, according to court testimony.
Early in the morning three days later, Jose Garcia, the suspect’s uncle who lived in the apartment above the victim, awoke to loud thuds coming from his grandfather’s unit.
After calling his grandfather twice on the phone with no answer, Garcia went downstairs to check on him.
He found Ruben Sanchez on the floor, covered in blood, but still breathing. When paramedics arrived, he was transported to a hospital, where he died.
Police testified that Ruben Sanchez had 15 to 20 circular and crescent-shaped injuries on his head and died of blunt-force trauma.
The night before, James Sanchez had left El Cajon, telling Guadarrama he was going to Glendale to pick up a paycheck. He returned the following day, and at some point, received a text message that the elder Sanchez was in the hospital.
When he told his fiancé, he made a comment about hitting the “old man” with a hammer eight times, and throwing the hammer on top of a doughnut shop.
Later, Guadarrama called Glendale police and told an officer that her fiancé had committed a murder, according to a recording of the phone call played in court.
A hammer with Ruben Sanchez’s blood on it was recovered on the roof of a strip mall next to a doughnut shop. Surveillance footage, as well as cellphone records, showed that James Sanchez was in the area around the time of the incident, police testified.
The judge denied the public defender’s motion to dismiss the case based on insufficient evidence.
James Sanchez is being held in lieu of $1 million bail and is due back in court next month.
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Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com
Twitter: @atchek