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Top Posts Sep 20, 2021
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Two of the five men charged in the beating death of a young man whose body was found on the side of a mountain road in the Angeles National Forest pleaded no contest Monday to voluntary manslaughter.
Francisco Amigon, now 22, was immediately sentenced to 11 years in state prison, while Jacob Hunter Elmendorf, also 22, was ordered to serve six years behind bars.
Co-defendants Hercules Dimitrios Balaskas and Andrew Joseph Michael Williams, both 22, and Luzon Matthew Martin Capiendo, 24, are still awaiting trial on murder, kidnapping and robbery charges stemming from the May 2018 attack on Julian Hamori-Andrade. They are due back in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Dec. 3 for a pretrial hearing, and could face potential life prison sentences if convicted as charged.
The 20-year-old victim’s body was discovered May 30, 2018, in heavy brush about 30 feet down a hill alongside Highway 39 in Azusa Canyon, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Authorities said he was beaten at Luzon’s home in the 6100 block of Goodway Drive in the Azusa area, where authorities found a large pool of blood on the floor two days earlier. Hamori-Andrade was then driven to Azusa Canyon, where again he was beaten and thrown over the side of the road, according to investigators.
Fighting back tears, the victim’s mother thanked Amigon and Elmendorf for admitting responsibility for their roles and said she had “no hate” for them.
“These have been three long years … Julian is gone forever,” Desiree Andrade said. “Please think about what you do in the future.”
The victim’s sister, Jasmine Hamori-Andrade, told Amigon and Elmendorf, “You guys have a future that my brother doesn’t have. Be smart.”
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