This Merced man was convicted of killing three people in 2012. But he plans to appeal

A Merced County jury on Friday found Pete Valenzuela Jr. guilty on three counts of first-degree murder in connection with a series of 2012 shootings.

Valenzuela, a 32-year-old Merced resident, also was found guilty on one count of first-degree attempted murder and one count of assault with a semi-automatic handgun, according to Merced Superior Court records. He faces a life sentence without possibility of parole, prosecutors said.

Valenzuela plans to appeal the conviction, said Mark Johnson, his attorney.

After a trial that took several weeks, the jury ruled Valenzuela shot and killed Luis Humberto Morales and Benjamin Samuel Mariano on Dec. 1, 2012, near an apartment complex in the 400 block of West 23rd St. Both victims were 21 years old.

Investigators matched shell casings from the double homicide on 23rd Street and another homicide case from two months earlier that same year, authorities said.

Antonio David Jacobo was shot and killed Oct. 10, 2012, in the 1300 block of West Sixth Street, in front of Sheehy Elementary School.

Prosecutors said the casings showed the same gun was used to kill all three victims.

The gun was found two years after the shootings dumped in rocks at the Don Pedro Reservoir, Nutt said.

Authorities argued Valenzuela was the shooter because at least one witness testified seeing him on at least one occasion with a firearm that appeared to be the same type of gun.

Prosecutors believed the gun, shell casings, eyewitnesses, other physical evidence and the “awesome” police work of former Merced Detective Joe Deliman led to the verdict, Chief Deputy District Attorney Hal Nutt said.

Nutt and lead attorney Tyson McCoy, a deputy district attorney, prosecuted the case.

“This was probably one of the more complicated, difficult cases,” Nutt said, noting detectives found the gun used in the crimes through Deliman’s investigation.

Valenzuela killed Jacobo in a possibly marijuana-related dispute, or a personal conflict involving one of Valenzuela’s relatives and Jacobo, investigators said.

Months later, Valenzuela reportedly got into a gang-related argument with Morales and Mariano at a party in a nearby apartment before Valenzuela followed them down the street and shot them to death at about 2:30 a.m., prosecutors said. Their bodies weren’t discovered until two hours later.

About three weeks after the double homicide on Dec. 23, 2012, Valenzuela and co-conspirators Patrick Cervantes and Israel Barajas reportedly attacked a man who returned home to Merced after completing boot camp with the U.S. Navy. The victim was believed to be visiting Cervantes’ girlfriend.

During the trial, the victim in that attack recounted how he was pistol-whipped and held in a choke-hold by Cervantes while Valenzuela pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger.

The gun didn’t fire, he said, and he escaped while Valenzuela was reloading the gun. Valenzuela reportedly fired several rounds at the victim as he ran away. The shell casings from that incident matched those from the two previous fatal shootings, prosecutors said.

“I’m disappointed (in the jury’s verdict),” Johnson said, noting his client plans to appeal the verdict after his sentencing hearing. “There were substantial problems with the people’s case ... I respect the jury’s decision and time they put into deliberations. However, I don’t agree with the outcome and hopefully, the expected appeal will be successful.”

Valenzuela’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Jan. 4.

“Because of (the jury’s) hard work and diligence, we were finally able to see that justice was done,” Nutt said in a statement. “Hopefully, this will help to bring closure to the families of those who were killed.”