A 26-year-old Laguna Seaside restaurant worker accused of utilizing a fireplace extinguisher to kill a girl who labored at one other eatery within the metropolis pleaded not responsible on Monday morning, Nov. 20, to a special-circumstances homicide cost.
Throughout a quick listening to in a Santa Ana courtroom, a lawyer entered a not responsible plea on behalf of Dino Fabrizio Rojas-Moreno, who’s dealing with a first-degree homicide cost in addition to enhancements for using a lethal weapon and for homicide through the fee of one other crime — an alleged kidnapping — associated to the slaying of Tatum Lee Goodwin, 27.
Rojas-Moreno spoke only some phrases, when requested by Orange County Superior Courtroom Choose Andre Manssourian to substantiate his date of start and to ensure he agreed to set his subsequent pretrial listening to for Jan. 30. The decide ordered Rojas-Moreno to stay behind bars with out the potential of bail.
Round 1 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 12, prosecutors say, Rojas-Moreno approached Goodwin in a parking zone. He assaulted her close to her parked automobile, prosecutors allege, then dragged her physique down a brief alley to a building web site by the previous Laguna Seaside movie show within the 200 block of Ocean Avenue.
On the secluded building web site, prosecutors allege, Rojas-Moreno beat Goodwin to loss of life with a fireplace extinguisher. Her physique was left underneath a chain-link fence in a building web site with a sandbag positioned over her head, prosecutors added.
About 8:20 a.m., a building employee found Goodwin’s physique.
Rojas-Moreno reportedly failed to indicate up for work after the killing. Prosecutors say he informed co-workers that he had been jumped by a number of males in Santa Ana.
The killing shocked the tight-knit Laguna Seaside group, with greater than 100 individuals gathering on the San Clemente Pier final week to honor Goodwin’s reminiscence. Rojas-Moreno was arrested a number of days after the physique was found.
Authorities haven’t publicly outlined a motive for the assault. Prosecutors say it’s unclear whether or not Goodwin had a previous relationship with Rojas-Moreno, although a pal of hers informed a reporter that there was no direct connection between the 2.
On the time of Goodwin’s killing, Rojas-Moreno was reportedly employed on the Royal Hawaiian in Laguna Seaside. However he beforehand labored on the Cabana Restaurant and Seaside Membership, a couple of three-minute stroll from Carmelita’s, the place Goodwin labored as a server and bartender.
Because of the special-circumstances homicide allegation, prosecutors should determine whether or not to pursue life in jail with out the potential of parole or the loss of life penalty.
