A feud over unpaid debts and control over a lucrative drug-trafficking business led to an outburst of violence in an Orange neighborhood in 2015, where residents, with a fourth body tied to the murders found days later in Fontana, prosecutors told a jury for the first time in the case Tuesday, April 9.
Wearing a blue suit and black glasses, his long hair pulled back in a bun, Flores sat quietly next to his attorney, listening as Deputy District Attorney Harris Siddiq sketched out what he believed to be Flores’ involvement in the killings. Siddiq said that in a series of interviews, Flores admitted to being part of the crew that ambushed the Berrelleza brothers and two other victims, Antonio Medina, 19, of Glendale, Arizona and Fernando Meza, 20 of Phoenix.
In the interview with the detectives, Flores admitted to dousing the bodies with gasoline, then lighting them on fire with a cigarette lighter. A video from a nearby porch camera captured Flores jumping out of the GMC as it caught fire, then running to a car waiting just behind. Cameron Talley, an attorney for Flores, disputed whether Flores knew Roman-Lopez intended to kill the Berrelleza brothers.