Jury decides that Indio man should be sentenced to death
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Jurors have recommended the death penalty for an Indian Springs man convicted of murdering a woman because she saw him shoot someone, prosecutors said Thursday.
The decision late Wednesday came more than five years after 18-year-old Makayla Jean Massey, also known as Anita Garcia, was shot and killed.
On August 29, a judge will officially hand down the sentence for Alexis Daniel Rosas, but judges typically follow the jury’s recommendations in death penalty cases.
Rosas, 28, and his former girlfriend, 33-year-old Maury Duarte, were convicted of first-degree murder on June 17.
The jury also found that the special circumstances of killing a witness to a crime and lying in wait applied. The sentencing phase in Rosas’ case began a week after his conviction. Jurors were asked to make recommendations on whether he should be sentenced to death or life in prison without parole.
Prosecutors are not seeking the death penalty for Duarte, but the special circumstances charges make her sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Her sentencing is scheduled for August 30.
Duarte is being held on $1 million bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, and Rosas is being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.
According to a trial report from the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, Massey’s boyfriend, identified only as “Abram,” had been feuding for some time with Rosas, a documented member of an Indio street gang nicknamed “Trigger.” The conflict had resulted in the defendant allegedly harassing and assaulting the victim on multiple occasions.
On June 24, 2019, prosecutors said, the argument led to Rosas going to the abandoned house in the 45-400 block of Oasis Street where Abram and Massey lived and shooting Abram in the chest – an act Massey witnessed and described in detail to Indio police immediately afterward.
Abram was hospitalized but eventually recovered from the injury. After the shooting, Massey checked into a Motel 6 in Indio, possibly to hide out, but Rosas learned of her whereabouts and that she had been in contact with police, leading him to plan her murder, prosecutors said.
He enlisted Duarte’s help and they used her 2005 Toyota Camry to get around. In the early morning hours of June 25, 2019, Rosas went to the victim’s motel room and convinced her to come out. He then physically restrained her in the Toyota, which Duarte drove to an abandoned ranch in the 82-600 block of Avenue 53 in Thermal, court records show.
Arriving at the scene, Rosas pushed the frightened victim out of the car and ordered her to walk toward a gate.
“The defendant kicked her in the stomach, causing her to fall to the ground,” the indictment states. “Rosas then shot Makayla five times. One shot struck her head. After the second shot, he knew he had killed her, but he continued to shoot her body.”
He left the victim where he had been murdered and headed back to Indio with Duarte, leaving the .380-caliber semi-automatic pistol he had used to kill Massey on the side of the road, according to the indictment.
Massey’s remains were discovered within days, leading to a sheriff’s investigation that pointed to Rosas as the killer. The defendants were arrested without incident on June 30, 2019, on Avenue 42 in Indio.
Court records showed that both Rosas and Duarte were involved in retail fraud, but neither had a prior criminal conviction in Riverside County.
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