RANDY ECONOMY: MY WORLD: JUSTICE FOR FLORENTINO RIVERA: Long Beach Jury finds Eric Antonio Benites guilty of 1st Degree Murder in 2008 . Faces 245 years in prison.

Monday, August 02, 2010

JUSTICE FOR FLORENTINO RIVERA: Long Beach Jury finds Eric Antonio Benites guilty of 1st Degree Murder in 2008 . Faces 245 years in prison.

By Randy Economy
www.Economy4ABC.Blogspot.com
August 2, 2010
1:15 p.m.

LONG BEACH – Justice has been carried out in the local gang murder case that many here in our community have been following for more than 2 years in local newspapers....

Late last week, jurors convicted a 17-year-old Long Beach youth accused of carrying out a gang murder to avenge the death of his younger brother.

Eric Antonio Benites was convicted of the first-degree murder of Florentino Rivera on Jan. 6, 2008. Jurors found true special allegations of gang murder and principal discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury and death.

Benites also was convicted of five counts of willful, deliberate and premeditated attempted murder. Jurors found true a gang allegation and an allegation that a principal discharged a firearm. The defendant additionally was convicted of one count each of assault with a firearm and possession of live ammunition by a minor.

Jurors, who deliberated for four hours before returning the verdicts, additionally found true that the defendant personally and intentionally discharged a firearm causing great bodily injury as to two attempted murder victims.

Long Beach Superior Court Judge J.D. Lord is expected to sentence Benites on Aug. 13 in Department L of Long Beach Court. Benites faces a maximum prison term of 245 years to life.

After a day of deliberations, a separate jury convicted co-defendant Jason Trejo, 16, of first-degree murder. Jurors found true gang and personal use of a firearm allegations, and an allegation that a principal discharged a firearm causing great bodily injury and death.

Trejo was additionally convicted of four counts of willful, deliberate and premeditated attempted murder. Jurors found true gang, personal use and principal discharge of a firearm allegations. The defendant also was convicted of one count of assault with a firearm. An allegation that the defendant personally discharged a firearm was found not true.

Trejo is expected to be sentenced on Sept. 10. He faces a maximum prison term of 214 years to life.

Benites and Trejo killed Rivera to avenge the murder of Benites’ younger brother, Jose Cano, 13. Cano was killed on June 26, 2007 by rival gang members. Benites turned on associates of a local gang when they failed to retaliate following Cano’s murder.

1 comment:

Finland Follwer of Randy said...: I live in FINLAND, and this is HOT news over here.; Sunday, September 12, 2010 4:19:00 PM

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Meet Randy Economy

You may know me from my role as the Senior Advisor and Official Media Spokesman for the Recall Gavin Newsom campaign that established a worldwide blitz of interviews. I conducted more than 2,200 media interviews on behalf of “The People’s Recall” during a 10-month period from November 2020 to September 2021. The iconic magazine Mother Jones in a dramatic feature article called me “A ‘Superhero Pirate’ Radio Host, (and) Gavin Newsom’s Strangest—and Most Dangerous—Threat. Meet Randy Economy, the man behind the effort to recall California’s governor.” I appeared on more than 330 media outlets around the world in my capacity with RecallGavin2020. Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Newsmax, NBC Nightly News, ABC News, as well as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Politico, and dozens of other media outlets aired featured reports on my work on behalf of “The People’s Recall.” I am and will always consider myself to be a journalist. Sometimes I think I bleed ink. My talents as an Investigative Journalists in California earned me FIVE top awards from the prestigious Los Angeles Press Club in 2013, 2014, and 2016. I am tenacious. My reporting over the years has led to the prosecution of several elected officials in California. While working for a tiny community newspaper in Southeast Los Angeles County, I worked doggedly to expose the biggest public corruption case in Los Angeles County history when I unearthed a massive pay to play scheme inside the Assessor’s Office that led to the arrest of then Assessor John R. Noguez and four others. However, politics has been in my DNA since I was a child. I have worked on more than 300 political campaigns as a consultant and advisor since 1982 for candidates from all sides of the political spectrum including Democrats and Republicans, and even Libertarians. I am also a small business owner, serving as the President and CEO of Hot Water Studio & Production, LLC. My company works with media outlets across the state, nation, and world exposing public corruption via several new media platforms. I have also overcome personal challenges. I am legally blind with zero vision in my right eye and only 40 percent vision remaining in my left eye. I sometimes wear an eyepatch due to my failed vision. (Hence the nickname of “America’s Political Pirate.”

Monday, August 02, 2010

JUSTICE FOR FLORENTINO RIVERA: Long Beach Jury finds Eric Antonio Benites guilty of 1st Degree Murder in 2008 . Faces 245 years in prison.

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