Trial opens in case of family feud double murder
A yearlong family feud over a woman culminated in 13 seconds.
Broken beer bottles lead to a barrage of gunfire in the western Las Vegas valley that left two men dead and another injured.
Jurors heard the sound of 31 shots fired into a pickup truck as the double murder trial of Richard Granados opened Tuesday. A day earlier, just before the jury was selected in the case, his brother Jose Granados-Dominguez Sr. pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter with use of a deadly weapon.
Juan Carlos Benitez, 20, and Paul Rodelo, 22, were killed in the hail of bullets on Aug. 10, 2009, while Cesar Sosa, 20, suffered 10 gunshot wounds and survived. Police found 7.62 mm rifle cartridge casings and .40-caliber casings next to a blue Ford F-150 truck in which Benitez and Rodelo lay dying.
Earlier that morning, the three had been driving up and down Edna Avenue, where the brothers lived, throwing beer bottles at their homes. Sosa testified Tuesday that he had just met the Benitez and Rodelo hours earlier and didn't know why they were throwing the bottles.
Prosecutor Alex Chen quoted musician Bob Dylan when speaking of Benitez's actions the day he was killed: "You can't be wise and in love at the same time."
About a year before the shooting, a 19-year-old woman named Paula Arenas Suarez had broken up with Benitez and started dating Richard Granados, then 30. A friend of Benitez, Jose Granados Jr. had introduced the woman to his uncle.
"We agree that Carlos may have been in love," Chen said. "He was making poor decisions. But just because you're in love— and the defendant was also in love with Paula — does not give you a right to commit premeditated, deliberate murder."
Benitez was upset and heartbroken over the breakup, and ended his friendship with Granados Jr, according to testimony from Benitez's twin sister, Karla Benitez.
"It sounds like some sort of fiction tale," said Richard Granados' lawyer, Kirk Kennedy. "But it's true. It's reality."
About a week after the shooting, police released Jose Granados Jr. from custody, saying he was not a suspect in the killings. Richard Granados was arrested in Los Angeles about two months after the shooting.
Kennedy called the shooting self-defense. Granados feared for his life, as Benitez turned his truck around and began "barreling down" toward the brothers, he said.
Chen rejected the defense, saying Granados was "gearing up to shoot. ... This was not a case of reactionary self-defense."
Granados pulled out his gun and told his family to go inside his home, Kennedy said. The gunfire was captured on a neighbor's surveillance system.
"It is over in about 13 seconds," Kennedy said. "Thirteen seconds that changed everybody's lives."
Contact reporter David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Find him on Twitter: @randompoker
