Inside The Prosecution's Case Against A Teen Killer Who Murdered And Dismembered A Friend
HEMET (CBS) — A southern California teenager was convicted on Oct. 27 of dismembering and then burning his 17-year-old friend's body in Nov. 2009.
A Riverside County jury found Jose Manuel Campos, guilty of murdering Adrian Rios, 17.
Campos, 19, and three other people were at a home in the city of Hemet, Calif., to view a football game on Nov. 15, 2009.
Officials said Rios got into an altercation with Ivan Ruiz, who was in the house, where Rios "punched Ruiz in the nose," according to a Riverside County District Attorney news release. Rios apparently decided he wanted out of this group of friends. Campos reportedly said there was only one way out.
Campos shot Rios with a .22 caliber rifle, according to prosecutors.
Campos and Ruiz took Rios' body and lit it on fire and later placed it into a shallow grave in the Campos' backyard, authorities said.
Officials also recovered human remains from Canyon Lake that matched Rios' profile.
Tonight, CBS2′s Rita Garcia talked to the prosecutor, Burke Strunsky, and got an exclusive look at some of the evidence in the case.
Says Strunsky, "I'm not sure you can ever come up with a movie for why one 17 year old kills another 17 year old."
Convicted killer Campos is shown ordering from McDonald's after the killing. Ruiz is shown cavalierly paying for gas. "It really told you," says Stransky, "that there was absolutely no remorse for Adrian Rios at that time."
Prosecutors credit the victim's mother, Elodea Lopez, for cracking the case. When her son didn't return home, she went to the killer's home and found his bloody shoes and a pair of his shorts.
She confronts her son's slayer. "You killed my son."
Campos replies, "Oh, now you're blaming me. Were you there? Now tell me this…were you there?"
Forensic evidence proved Rios was killed inside Campos home. And Strunsky calls that exchange "the height of arrogance…and cruelty. He's laughing at her. He's not telling her who killed her son."
Strunsky also showed Garcia parts of the police interrogations in which the suspect's were less than cooperative. Still, they helped the victim's mother get some closure.
And, reports Garcia, they helped a jury convict her son's killer.
