Shooting Victim in Field Identified as Waiter

A man found dead in an orange grove near the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station had been shot in the head, sheriff’s officials said Friday.

Jose Luis Pena Banuelos, 24, apparently was dumped in the field a short time before his body was discovered by a farm worker Thursday morning, Orange County sheriff’s officials said.

Pena Banuelos, a part-time waiter at upscale hotels in Irvine and Newport Beach, was the third person found murdered in the area since late March.

The first two victims--an unidentified woman and a man who was last seen in San Juan Capistrano--died from severe blows to the head, authorities said. Homicide investigators do not believe there is a link between the cases, said Sheriff Lt. Bob Rivas.

“There is nothing that makes a connection” between the three, Rivas said.

Pena Banuelos was a transient who occasionally lived with a friend in a west Tustin apartment complex.

“He was a wanderer, so to speak,” said the friend, who last saw him Monday night and who declined to be identified. Pena Banuelos at the time was quiet, as usual, his friend said. “He didn’t really speak about his personal life much. . . . He would stay here and there” with other people in the area, he continued.

What Pena Banuelos did say, however, was that he immigrated to Orange County from Tepic, Mexico, about five years ago.

Shortly afterward, he went to work part time at the Le Meridien Hotel in Newport Beach, where he helped set up banquets and wait tables, according to a hotel security official.

Pena Banuelos also worked part time waiting tables at the Irvine Marriott hotel in Irvine, his friend said.