Pacoima Man Guilty in Murder of Alien
A San Fernando Superior Court jury on Monday convicted a Pacoima man of kidnaping and murdering an illegal alien in 1984.
Javier Cortez, 26, a butcher at a Pacoima meat market, was found guilty of killing Fermin Vasquez, 22, who was living in Pacoima.
Cortez and another man, who fled to Mexico after the shooting, took Vasquez to an area off the Foothill Freeway along Big Tujunga Canyon Road on Sept. 19, 1984, to determine whether Vasquez stole some jewelry from the other man, according to Cortez’s attorney, H. Russell Halpern.
The prosecution contended that Cortez shot Vasquez there with a handgun. Halpern argued that the other man had fired the shots.
Cortez could receive a maximum sentence of 27 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Nov. 17 by Judge Robert D. Fratianne.
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