Participants in North County beating-for-hire describe attack in court

A Stockton man told a jury Wednesday that he agreed to break a stranger’s leg and mess up his face for $1,000 because he was strapped for cash.

“I didn’t have a job or anything so whenever the opportunity came up to make a little bit of money, I said, ‘I’ll do it,’ ” Joseph Villarreal, 26, testified.

While he didn’t know the person who had commissioned the attack, another witness, Christine Garner, told the jury Maria del Carmen Granados Fajardo was the instigator.

Fajardo, 51, of Paso Robles, is accused of ordering two attacks on her former live-in boyfriend, Victor Sanchez, 38. The second attack, in February 2013, left Sanchez dead from a bullet wound, resulting in murder charges against Fajardo.

Deputy District Attorney Craig Van Rooyen suggested earlier that Fajardo was jealous and angry at her ex-lover and paid $12,000 total for the two attacks.

During the trial’s most dramatic day of testimony Wednesday, two of the prosecution’s key witnesses described the first of those attacks, which occurred in October 2012, on the same day that Fajardo filed a small claims suit against Sanchez over a loan debt.

Garner, 26, of Ceres, said she knew Fajardo through her now-former husband, David Hernandez, who was once Fajardo’s brother-in-law. In 2012, Garner testified, Hernandez told her Fajardo had offered him money to find someone to “go beat a guy up in Paso Robles.”

“He wanted to know if I knew of anybody who would be willing to do that,” Garner testified.

Garner, who said she began taking meth at age 11 and became fluent in Spanish while living on the streets, told Hernandez it was a dumb idea but said she would ask around.

Eventually, she asked her sister, Crystal Garner, who offered to wage the attack with her boyfriend, Villarreal.

Hernandez later explained what was needed, Villarreal said.

“He told me that (the victim’s) wife wanted a leg broke and his face messed up,” Villarreal said. “And I said, ‘OK.’ ”

Sanchez and Fajardo were not married, though witnesses testified they were once engaged and had a 10-year relationship.

Villarreal has already been sentenced to six years in prison for his role in the attack. Christine Garner pleaded no contest to robbery, conspiracy and being an accessory after the fact, but she has yet to be sentenced.

To lure Sanchez, the witnesses said, they had Crystal Garner send him a text, pretending they had previously met. In a text exchange, she asked to meet him at a Paso Robles bar.

The two did meet, and Crystal Garner persuaded Sanchez to go to her place, according to the testimony of Garner and Villarreal. Driving Sanchez’s car, Crystal Garner found a rural road near Templeton and stopped. A second car, driven by Hernandez, pulled up to Sanchez’s car. Villarreal and Christine Garner were with Hernandez.

“David told me, ‘Go ahead — hurry up,’ ” Villarreal said.

According to testimony from Villarreal and Christine Garner, the following occurred:

Villarreal, high on meth and sleep deprived, walked up to Sanchez’s Camaro, hiding a tire iron behind his back, and said they were on private property. After Crystal Garner exited the car, Villarreal screamed at Sanchez to get out.

Sanchez then tried to start the car, Villarreal said.

“I got nervous so I hit him in the face with the tire iron through the car,” Villarreal said.

After shattering the car’s T-top, Villarreal said, he grabbed Sanchez’s arm and yanked him out of the vehicle and continued to beat him with the tire iron.

“I was hitting him in the arm, the leg — in random places,” said Villarreal, dressed in a white prison uniform and handcuffed at the waist.

During the attack, Crystal Garner took Sanchez’s wallet and cell phone, the witnesses said.

“The wife said she wasn’t going to pay us unless we brought proof that we did it,” Villarreal said.

The group left as a neighbor began to drive toward them.

“David drove back to Paso Robles, and he drove to Carmen’s house,” Christine Garner testified.

There, she said, Hernandez handed Fajardo the wallet. The group left Fajardo’s home with $6,000, $1,000 of which was given to Villarreal and Crystal Garner.

After leaving Paso Robles, the group spent money at a Denny’s, a casino and then a motel. The next morning, they shopped — Villarreal buying a home sound system and Crystal Garner buying an iPad — before returning home.

Two days after the attack, Villarreal testified, Hernandez and his wife beckoned again, with a second Sanchez request.

“They wanted to do something else to him because the wife wasn’t satisfied with what I did to him,” he said.

This story was originally published November 19, 2014 at 11:43 PM with the headline "Participants in North County beating-for-hire describe attack in court."