Julian Gonzalez and Andrea Vazquez were sitting on the trunk of his parked Honda Accord at Penn Park in Whittier, hanging out and talking when a white pickup truck with tinted windows pulled up in front of his car.
“That’s when I heard shots,” he said.
Gonzalez turned around and saw 19-year-old Vazquez lying on the ground. She was bleeding above her neck, close to the face, he said.
Gonzalez testified about what happened to them on Aug. 20, 2023 during Tuesday’s preliminary hearing for Gabriel Sean Esparza, the Whittier man accused of kidnapping Vazquez, trying to rape the Fullerton College student and killing her.
Her body was found Aug. 21, 2023 lying facedown in a field off Alessandro Boulevard and Merwin Street in Moreno Valley. She wore only a black top with her pants and underwear pulled down to her ankles.
Photos of Vazquez as she was discovered were shown in a court filled with her family and friends. Several of them cried.
Four bullet fragments were recovered from her brain, Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman said, adding the coroner ruled Vazquez died from a gunshot wound to the forehead.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged Esparza with the murder of Vazquez, the attempted murder of her boyfriend as well as kidnapping to commit another crime, kidnapping, assault with intent to rape and two counts of attempted rape by force.
He was also charged with the special circumstance allegations of murder during the course of a kidnapping and murder during the course of an attempted rape as well as the allegation he personally used a rifle while committing the crimes.
Esparza has pleaded not guilty to the charges and denied the allegations. If convicted, he faces a possible maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
Gonzalez, who was dating Vazquez, said he picked her up at her Downey home on Aug. 19, 2023. They went to a Starbucks in Downey, a parking structure in Whittier, then Penn Park at 13950 Penn St. in Whittier. Gonzalez backed into a parking stall. His Accord was facing Penn Street.
Then the white Toyota showed up. After the gunshots, Gonzalez ducked.
“That’s when I heard the door (of the pickup) open,” he said, adding he peeked and saw the driver holding a gun coming towards him. Gonzalez made eye contact with the man who pointed the gun at him.
Gonzalez ran and went into the park. When he returned, he saw the pickup was still there; Then the driver took off. He heard tires screeching.
“Andrea, she wasn’t there. She was gone,” he said. Gonzalez noticed a puddle of blood where he last saw her.
He saw people and told them to call police. He tried to call Vazquez’s sister, Edlyn, then called police. He went back to Vazquez’s home.
“I just wanted to let the family know right away,” Gonzalez said.
Alejandro Rico was outside a home on Canyon Crest Road, directly above Penn Park, around 12:20 a.m. on Aug. 20, 2023. He said he was cleaning up after a barbecue and heard two gunshots. He said he climbed up a wall, looked over, saw a coyote running and a white Toyota truck with the driver’s side open. It had a black cover on the truck bed and tinted windows.
He saw the driver come out, go to the back passenger side, open it, and throw something. The driver also went to the bed of the truck. He heard the truck take off.
He also saw a couple running and a Camry and black Accord take off pretty fast, Rico said. He thought these were probably related to the white Toyota that sped off.
Whittier Police Detective Tom Nordbak, who is one of the investigators in the case, later showed Rico a photo of a white Tacoma taken by a security camera near a Chevron station in Moreno Valley. Rico told the detective it looked like the vehicle he saw.
Esparza was arrested the afternoon of Aug. 21, 2023 at his job in Lakewood. Detectives also seized a gun and his Tacoma.
Nordbak went to Moreno Valley with Esparza, other detectives and officers around 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 21, 2023.
“It was an area his cell phone pinged at,” said Nordbak, who described the area as desolate with a small road. They had Esparza walk them to the area he was familiar with, he said.
The police spread out and did a grid search. They found Vazquez.
They went to another spot where Esparza said he threw Vazquez’s phone, Nordbak said. They searched but didn’t find the phone, he added.
Edlyn Vazquez was part of the big group that showed up for the hearing and filled the courtroom.
“I don’t tell anyone to come. They came on their own,” she said, adding it shows how much her sister was loved.
She plans to be in court every single day, she said.
“I don’t want to miss anything and I want to make sure I hear everything myself,” Edlyn Vazquez said.
The hearing, held at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles, continues Wednesday.
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