Orange Mass Shooting: Judge Orders Attorneys To Hospital Bedside

ORANGE, CA— After being told the accused mass murder suspect remains unconscious in the hospital for the third time, an Orange County judge ordered attorneys to his bedside to see his condition for themselves.

On Tuesday, the Superior Court Justice Cheri T. Pham ordered the attorneys representing the hospitalized defendant, Aminadab Gaxiola Gonzales, 44, accused of killing four people in a shooting rampage in Orange last week to go to the hospital. They determined that Gonzales was able to be arraigned.

Defense attorney Ken Morrison said he didn't initially believe the defendant is "in any condition to be arraigned."

Gonzales remained in his hospital bed, during the proceedings, unable to properly communicate due to his current medical condition, according to Morrison. The assistant public defender declined to aim the camera at his client during the court proceedings. Morrison told all present that he was trying to be mindful of his client, who had serious medical problems.

"I can unequivocally say that Mr. Gonzales cannot communicate with the court due to his medical condition," Morrison told Pham.

The arraignment was rescheduled for Wednesday.

No information was disclosed to the court regarding Gonzales's current state of health.

Police have accused Gonzales of killing four people, including a 9-year-old boy, and critically wounding a fifth victim in a shooting rampage in an office complex in Orange last week. The multiple murder charges make him eligible for the death penalty if he's convicted, according to the Orange County District Attorney's office.

Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to pursue the ultimate punishment.

Gonzales has been unable so far to communicate with his attorneys and remains hospitalized at UC Irvine Medical Center, Assistant Public Defender Ken Morrison said, making a bedside arraignment for Gonzales impossible.

The charges against Gonzales include four counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder of a police officer and one count of attempted murder. He also faces a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders and sentence enhancements alleging the personal discharge of a firearm causing death, premeditation, personal discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury, personal use of a firearm and personal discharge of a firearm.

Police allege the defendant specifically targeted Unified Homes, a real estate company selling manufactured homes, and was acquainted either personally or professionally with all of the victims, who were identified by police as 50-year-old company co-owner Luis Tovar; his daughter, 28-year-old Jenevieve Raygoza; 9-year-old Matthew Farias; and company employee Leticia Solis Guzman, 58. Blanca Tamayo, who worked at Unified Homes, was the only person shot who survived.

When police arrived Tamayo was cradling her dead son, Matthew.

Gonzales, from nearby Fullerton, was staying at a motel in the neighboring city of Anaheim and used a rented car to arrive at the office building on Wednesday afternoon, according to police reports.

He chained the front and rear gates to the two-story complex and then went into the second-floor offices of Unified Homes, authorities said.

Police released a frame from a security video inside the office. It showed the gunman wearing a bandana over his face, brandishing a semiautomatic handgun and hauling a backpack that contained pepper spray, handcuffs and ammunition, authorities said.

He has a history of misdemeanor battery and cruelty to a child, according to court records. He served one day in jail, but his conviction was expunged in 2017, according to a spokesperson for the city of Anaheim.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Matthew's family pay for funeral costs and had raised more than $45,000 as of Tuesday. The boy's father, Rafael Arias, told ABC7 that his only child had hoped to be an astronaut or a police officer.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said at a Thursday news conference that "a little boy died in his mother's arms as she was trying to save him during this horrific massacre."

City News Service, Patch Editor Ashley Ludwig contributed to this report.