Prosecutors have charged Juan Rodriguez with murder for the Aug. 20 fatal shooting of a 29-year-old Mountain View man who authorities say was dating Rodriguez's sister and staying at the apartment complex where he was killed.
The Santa Clara County Medical Examiner-Coroner's Office has identified the deceased man as Irvin Yonatan Quijano Reyes and determined that he died of a gunshot wound to the chest, declaring the death a homicide.
Police found Quijano Reyes lying in the driveway of the apartment complex on Reinert Road in Mountain View shortly after 9 a.m. on Aug. 20 with at least one gunshot wound. He was declared dead at the scene, Mountain View police said.
Police arrested Rodriguez, 23, the day of the shooting on suspicion of murder, and he was arraigned several days later, according to court records. A plea hearing is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 8.
Rodriguez is currently being held in jail without bail, district attorney's office spokesperson Cynthia Sumida said.
The district attorney's office released a statement of facts document prepared by a Mountain View Police Department detective, which lays out information that officers gathered in their investigation. According to the statement, a sister of Rodriguez came to the scene shortly after the shooting and claimed to police that Rodriguez said he was going to kill Quijano Reyes, who was dating their other sister.
Rodriguez lived with their mother and siblings, including the sister who was dating Quijano Reyes, in an apartment on Reinert Road. Quijano Reyes stayed in the unit multiple nights per week, and Rodriguez didn't like him because he didn't pay rent, the sister told police, according to the statement of facts.
The sister also told police that Rodriguez owned at least two handguns and brandished a gun at her during an argument in October 2022, according to the investigation.
Police also spoke to the sister who was dating Quijano Reyes, who said that she and her mother left the apartment at 8:40 a.m. that morning, leaving only Quijano Reyes and Rodriguez in the home, according to the statement of facts.
Officers found a handgun in the bushes near the apartment with "distinctive gold/copper" bullets in the magazine. Bullets of the same color were found in a bag on the floor of Rodriguez's bedroom, along with gun cleaning supplies and another firearm magazine, according to the statement of facts. A fired bullet was also found in the front entryway door jam, the statement of facts said.
According to police, a man with Rodriguez's features was seen on video walking in a nearby parking lot minutes after the gunshots were heard and clothes that seemed to match those seen in the video were later found in Rodriguez's bathroom.
A bullet trajectory analysis concluded that the gun used to kill Quijano Reyes was shot from inside or just outside the front doorway of the apartment where Rodriguez lived, according to the statement of facts.
A public defender assigned to the case did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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