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EL CAMINO COLLEGE
SERVING THE COMMUNITY SINCE 1946
@eccunion
May 19, 2022
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Mother mourns loss of El Camino student Court in session for those accused in the death of engineering student found in the desert @Kim McGillLA
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because Peng suspected him of stealing marijuana and money. Astaphan was the manager at V.I.P. Collective and Peng was the shop’s owner. Daniel Romero testified that he and Hernandez worked at the dispensary as “budtenders.” Balian showed Romero two photos taken after 11 p.m. on Sept. 22 that were recovered from the dispensary’s digital video recorder. In the photos, Romero identified Hernandez lying face down on the dispensary floor. Romero also said that Astaphan was lying on top of Hernandez with his right arm wrapped around Hernandez’ neck. In the second photo, standing to the left of Astaphan and Hernandez, is a man that Romero could not identify. Heng began sobbing when Balian showed her the photo of the security footage. She identified everyone in the picture, corroborating Romero’s earlier testimony as to Astaphan and Hernandez, but adding that the third
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man in the photo, bending over toward Hernandez’ head, was Peng. Heng also said Peng, her then boyfriend, was known to her and others as “James” or “J.” Her testimony continued for more than a day. Heng testified that Peng sold cocaine and ketamine outside of the marijuana business conducted at the dispensary. She also testified that Peng kept a vial of ketamine in a blue box in the kitchen cupboard, and that she knew it to be a tranquilizer. Heng said that about a month before Hernandez’ disappearance, Peng began to complain that as much as $20,000 from the dispensary was missing. On the night of Sept. 22, 2020, Heng said that Astaphan came to their apartment in Alhambra and was talking in the living room to Peng. “I heard James say he’s going to get rid of Juan,” Heng said. She also said that she saw Peng holding the blue box that she recognized
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Yajaira Hernandez holds a photo of her son, El Camino College student Juan Hernandez, 21, at the #SurvivorsSpeak rally in Sacramento on Tuesday, April 26. On Tuesday, May 3, 2022, Hernandez went to Clara Shortridge Foltz Courthouse for a hearing in the case of The People of Calif. vs. Sonita Heng. Heng, 22, has accepted a plea deal for her role in the killing of Hernandez’ son. (Kim McGill | The Union)
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EDITORIAL
n Sept. 22, 2020, Juan Carlos Hernandez, a 21-year-old El Camino College student, left his home in South Central Los Angeles to go to work at the unlicensed V.I.P. Collective marijuana dispensary. He never came home. Nearly two months after Hernandez’ disappearance, on Nov. 15, 2020, the LAPD and San Bernardino County Sheriff ’s deputies found his body in the Mojave Desert. Two people were detained and charged for their role in Hernandez’ death. Ethan Kedar Astaphan, 28, was charged with one count of first degree murder and is facing a maximum sentence of 25 years to life. Several weeks after Hernandez’ death, 22-year-old Sonita Heng and a third person, Weijai Peng, fled to Turkey. Heng returned after about a month and was arrested on November 19, 2020. She was originally charged with felony accessory after the fact, and faced a state prison sentence of 16 months to three years. As part of a plea deal with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, Heng is a cooperating witness for the prosecution in exchange for 112 days in jail and two years’ probation. She served 56 days in jail when first detained, which counted as time served with half-time credit. Peng was eventually detained in Turkey, and is fighting extradition to Los Angeles. Los Angeles County Assistant District Attorney Habib Balian presented much of the prosecution’s case from Monday, Feb. 28 to Wednesday, March 2, 2022, during a preliminary hearing for the People of California vs. Ethan Kedar Astaphan at Clara Shortridge Foltz courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. Judge Michael E. Pastor presided over the hearing in Department 41. The prosecution argued that Astaphan and Peng killed Hernandez and hid his body in the desert with Heng’s assistance, through testimony presented during the preliminary hearing by several witnesses, as well as surveillance, phone and forensic evidence. Balian further argued that Astaphan and Peng conspired to kill Hernandez
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as containing ketamine. Heng said the three of them left the apartment and got into Astaphan’s black Mercedes SUV. When they got to V.I.P. Collective at approximately 11 p.m., Heng parked in the alley behind the shop while Peng and Astpahan went inside. Heng said that a short while afterward, she was asked to leave the SUV and they backed the car up to the shop’s back door. After returning to the driver’s seat, Heng heard a sound behind her and saw Peng and Astaphan dragging Hernandez out of the shop and into the backseat. Heng then said that Peng told Heng to drive toward Las Vegas. On the way, she said Astaphan cracked Hernandez’ phone and threw it out the window. At some point, Heng said that Peng handed Astaphan a vial that she identified as ketamine and a syringe. She further testified that Astaphan injected Hernandez at least twice. Heng estimated that they drove for about two hours when Peng told her to exit. “It was pitch dark,” Heng said. Heng said that it was then, off a dirt road in a remote section of the Mojave Desert, where Peng and Astaphan took Hernandez from the car and disappeared from view, returning to the SUV alone. Heng said the three of them drove back to the dispensary, cleaned the area where Hernandez had appeared to be choked, removed evidence including Hernandez’ glasses, returned the DVR from the SUV to the office, and drove Hernandez’ car away from the shop. Heng said the next day they drove to Bolsa Chica in Orange County and burned Hernandez’ possessions on the beach. Jennifer Hammer, an LAPD detective in the Robbery-Homicide Division, said that cell phone tower data was used to track Peng’s, Astaphan’s and Heng’s phones on the night of the killing, showing the phones travel from Alhambra, to the vicinity of the dispensary, to the Mojave Desert and back to the dispensary area. The LAPD and San Bernardino County Sheriff ’s Department were able to find Hernandez’ body with this mapping. Hammer testified that she also obtained a search warrant to access the records from Astaphan’s phone recovered at his arrest on Nov. 19, 2020.
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Kim McGill