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View Winners → Crime Oct 17, 2023
Julian Hamori-Andrade. | Photo courtesy of Jasmine Hamori/GoFundMe
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One of five men who had been 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 first-degree murder on the eve of his trial.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench immediately sentenced Hercules Dimitrios Balaskas to 25 years to life in state prison in connection with the May 2018 killing of Julian Hamori-Andrade, according to Deputy District Attorney Phil Stirling.
Balaskas, 24, is the fourth defendant to plead no contest or guilty in connection with the attack.
Andrew Williams, now 24, pleaded guilty April 21 to one count of voluntary manslaughter, three counts of kidnapping and seven counts of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury. All of the charges involve the same victim.
He is facing 25 years in state prison, with sentencing set Nov. 15 in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.
Francisco Amigon, now 24, was sentenced to 11 years in state prison and Jacob Hunter Elmendorf, 24, was ordered to serve six years behind bars after the two pleaded no contest in September 2021 to voluntary manslaughter.
The fifth defendant Matthew Martin Capiendo is set to go on trial Tuesday. He could face a potential life prison term without the possibility of parole if he is convicted of first-degree murder and the special circumstance allegations of murder during the commission of a robbery and murder during the commission of a kidnapping.
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 Capiendo’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.
At Balaskas’ sentencing, the victim’s mother Desiree Andrade said the courthouse has been her “second home” for the past five years — a chapter that she said she never wants to reopen or relive.
“There is never enough punishment in my eyes for you for what you have done,” she said, directly addressing the defendant. “What you did was pure evil. He did not deserve this ending. You brutally took away my son, a brother, a love and a daddy to two beautiful kids. … I hope that in the time you spend in prison you are reminded of that day over and over and over again as I will be for the rest of my life.”
The victim’s sister Jasmine Andrade said she was her younger brother’s protector and best friend, and did not expect the last time she said goodbye to him to be the last time she would ever see his face or hear his voice.
“Every single second of every day I think about him, about the memories we made growing up together, about all of the things we would have done together in our future,” she said. “Never did I think that he would be taken from this earth so young, be robbed of the opportunity to raise his children or to meet my two children. … Every single one of these men, including the one sitting here with us today, had the opportunity to do the right thing, make the right choice and stop this before it went too far. Unfortunately, none of them had the guts and conscience to do so, and in turn played a part in taking the life of a human being — my younger brother, a father, a son, a grandson and friend.”
