Man convicted of baseball bat murders of elderly mother, stepfather

POMONA, Calif. – A man was convicted Monday of the baseball bat murders of his 65-year-old mother and his 73-year-old stepfather at the family’s Hacienda Heights home.

Jurors deliberated for just over an hour before finding Nelson Fermin Garibay, now 47, guilty of first-degree murder for the Jan. 11, 2021, killings of Irma Garibay and Mario Flores-Romero.

The panel also found true the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders, along with convicting him of an attempted murder charge involving his brother, who survived the attack. The jury is due back in a Pomona courtroom Friday for the start of the trial’s sanity phase.

Garibay could face life in prison without the possibility of parole if jurors find that he was sane at the time of the crimes.

Deputy District Attorney Cesar Rodriguez told the jury that the defendant’s motive was “hate” that had been brewing for years, and that his “hatred for his family grew even stronger” after he was forced to move out to the garage.

“It’s that hate that motivated these crimes,” the prosecutor said. “He set out to end three lives and succeeded in taking Irma’s and Mario’s.”

Garibay threatened his mother and brother, “Your day is coming,” according to Rodriguez, who told the jury that “sadly the defendant carried out the threat.”

Garibay used a baseball bat to deliver “multiple blows” to his mother in the garage in a “vicious act” that proved to be overwhelming, then ”like a predator” hunted down his stepfather and attacked him with a baseball bat and a fruit picker in the back yard, the prosecutor told jurors.

Rodriguez told jurors that the defendant “failed to eliminate the only witness to his heinous acts” — his brother, who was the final target and suffered a cut to his head that required 30 staples.

Garibay posted on Facebook, “It’s done,” in a post that was subsequently deleted, according to the prosecutor.

Garibay — who had taken his mother’s car — was arrested 10 days later in the San Diego County community of Otay Mesa, near the Mexican border, the deputy district attorney said.

Defense attorney Gary Meastas told jurors that they had no evidence of “how this went down,” questioning how it started.

He noted that his client was living in a garage with “no access to a bathroom.”

Garibay’s attorney called hate a pretty strong word and questioned what evidence jurors had seen that Garibay hated his entire family.

He also questioned the prosecutor’s assertion that Garibay was heading south toward Mexico, asking what kind of proof there was that his client intended to cross the border.

Meastas had urged the jury to find his client not guilty of premeditated and deliberate murders and attempted murder — a request the jury quickly rejected. (CNS)