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Two men convicted in robbery-murder of marijuana dispensary employee in Santa Ana

October 29, 2024

Men identified as the shooter and driver were convicted of murder on Monday, Oct. 28, for their roles in the 2019 slaying of a marijuana dispensary worker who was run off the road and shot to death on the edge of the Santa Ana College campus while transporting tens of thousands of dollars in cash.

An Orange County Superior Court jury found John Taylor — the alleged shooter — and Ryan Jones — the alleged driver — guilty of special circumstances murder for killing 29-year-old Osvaldo Garcia of Santa Ana during a robbery on Sept. 16, 2019. The two men now face up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

A third man — Antonio Lamont Triplett — was convicted during an earlier trial of special circumstances murder for his role in the slaying and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors in that earlier trial referred to Triplett as a “bag man” who ran off with Garcia’s backpack and the dispensary money.

Garcia was responsible for picking up and transporting cash from a marijuana dispensary in South Los Angeles. On Sept. 15, 2019 he left the dispensary around 11 p.m. with a backpack filled with tens of thousands of dollars cash. He planned to meet his girlfriend that night at an In-N-Out in Santa Ana.

Another vehicle — which prosecutors allege was driven by Jones — forced Garcia’s car off the roadway near the Bristol and 17th streets intersection, a collision captured on security cameras at the nearby Santa Ana College campus.

Garcia’s vehicle went over a sidewalk and onto a raised embankment and hedges. His girlfriend — who was on the phone with him at the time — heard Garcia exclaim “They are shooting at me, help me!”

Security footage showed two men — identified by prosecutors as Taylor and Triplett — get out of the other vehicle and run up to Garcia’s car, one of whom began firing multiple gunshots. Garcia, who tried to escape by crawling out of the passenger window of his car, was pistol-whipped, beaten and shot five times.

During the recent trial, prosecutors alleged that Taylor was the one who beat and shot Garcia, who died at the scene.

“This was an execution and a robbery,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Anna McIntire told jurors during her closing arguments last week.

A marked Santa Ana police vehicle passed by on Bristol Street shortly after the shooting, but the occupant or occupants apparently didn’t see the crashed vehicle or Garcia’s body. Triplett ran off moments later with Garcia’s backpack, cutting through campus and a nearby shopping center.

Minutes later, the vehicle that had forced Garcia off the road left with the other men.

Worrying that Garcia had been kidnapped, his girlfriend went to the campus and was quickly taken by police to the nearby Santa Ana Police Station. Officers realized that Garcia’s girlfriend had never ended the call to her boyfriend’s phone, which had been stolen by one of the men.

With the help of a police helicopter, investigators tracked Garcia’s phone to Corona, then along several Los Angeles-area freeways to a parking lot in Carson, where the occupants of several vehicles were seen moving items from one car to another.

Two vehicles were stopped by police as they left the lot in Carson. A third car, which had the stolen cell phone in it, was followed by officers to Long Beach.

Among those ultimately taken into custody that morning were Triplett, Taylor and Jones, as well as a woman who worked at the same dispensary as Garcia.

Blood on Triplett’s shoe tied him to Garcia. Cell phone data showed Jones near the dispensary earlier that night and Jones, Triplett and Taylor in Santa Ana at the time of the robbery and killing, according to prosecutors.

Defense attorneys representing Jones and Taylor denied that they played a direct role in Garcia’s killing.

Taylor — who described himself in courtroom testimony as an apartment janitor, part time Uber driver and a drug addict — was tricked into allowing other men to use his car that night and was “high as a kite” at the time of the shooting, his attorney, Cameron Talley, told jurors.

Taylor testified that the shooter was a man who went by the nickname “Hustle,” who he said was himself shot and killed in St. Louis shortly after Garcia’s slaying. Taylor said “Hustle” had convinced him to go along the night of Garcia’s killing by making him think it was going to be a marijuana deal.

Taylor said he was asleep as someone else drove to Santa Ana, then was awakened by the “bang” of the collision with Garcia’s car. Minutes later, Taylor testified, he heard gunshots.

“I was frightened,” Taylor testified. “I heard the shots and I looked up and I see Hustle coming back in the car with a gun… He just said ‘Let’s go.’”

Talley, Taylor’s attorney, told jurors that his client had been “duped.”

“He had no idea whatsoever that his car was going to be used in a murder,” the defense attorney said. “He thought he was going to get some cheap pot.”

Both Talley and Jones’ attorney, Associate Defender Kelly Rozek, described the evidence against their clients as circumstantial.

“We have no clue what he knew or what his role was,” Rozek said of Jones during her closing arguments. “The prosecution wants you to fill in the blanks, they want you to fill in information you do not have.”

The prosecutor argued that as the suspected driver who ran Garcia off the road, Jones had a direct role in the killing. She added that Taylor’s testimony that he was asleep until collision was “ridiculous.”

Taylor and Jones are scheduled to return to court for sentencing on Dec. 13.

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Orange County Register

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Two men convicted in robbery-murder of marijuana dispensary employee in Santa Ana

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