A judge refused to set any bail Monday for three people accused of shooting a motorist to death in his car in Chula Vista, shooting a woman and leaving her for dead, and assaulting a man in a National City park.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Yvonne Campos declined to set bail because special circumstance charges were filed against all three people in which the District Attorney’s office could seek the death penalty if they are convicted of first-degree murder.
Mario Serhan, 59, had left a business meeting in Chula Vista on April 11 at 12:50 p.m. and he pulled over in his sports utility vehicle to apparently check his phone on Industrial Boulevard at Belvia Lane. Serhan wasn’t aware three people were watching him or that they had a kidnapped woman in their car.
Deputy District Attorney David Grapilon said Cesar “Capone” Alvarado, 39, told the others in the car that he thought Serhan was an undercover police officer following them. Alvarado fired a shot, striking Serhan in the temple while he was driving. Serhan slumped over, and his car rolled across an intersection and hit a garage at a self-storage business.
“Mr. Serhan was a completely innocent person in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Grapilon to reporters afterwards.
“According to the witness, when Mr. Alvarado…struck Mr. Serhan in the head, he basically whooped and hollered and said “I got him in the dome,’ which is slang for head,” said Grapilon.
Grapilon said the driver, Britney Giselle Canal, 29, who is also known as “Giggles,” also “basically said congratulations” to Alvarado. Canal, who is also known as Britney Llamas, is from Chula Vista and Alvarado is from National City.
The third person, Michael Anthony Pedraza, 27, whose nickname is “Monster” and from San Diego, was acquainted with Mya H., the kidnapped 19-year-old woman in the back seat. She was robbed and forced to accompany the defendants who brought her to various locations to obtain money or valuables from her and her family, said Grapilon.
Mya was shocked with a stun gun in the car, and then the group drove her to Sunset Cliffs. Canal parked and Pedraza and Alvarado forced Mya out of the car. Grapilon said Pedraza, held a gun and ordered her to walk down the stairs to the ocean.
Mya begged Pedraza not to shoot her, and he told her to die “with dignity,” according to Grapilon. She was shot three times. One bullet entered near her ear and traveled down her neck, striking her spinal cord, court documents say. She immediately fell onto the stairs and against a railing.
Pedraza shot two more times and he and Alvarado left her for dead at 2:35 a.m. April 12 before walking back up to the car, said Grapilon. She remained there all night. Tourists found her at daybreak.
She was taken to a hospital in critical condition and had surgery. Detectives were able to speak with her a week later and she identified all three people as the ones who kidnapped and shot her, said Grapilon.
She is at an undisclosed medical facility and receiving 24-hour treatment. She is able to speak, but requires constant monitoring and care.
Later on April 12, the defendants confronted Derek Grover, who was sitting in his vehicle at El Toyon Park at 2:30 p.m. in National City. Pedraza stabbed Grover in the leg, while Alvarado punched him in the face, said Grapilon. They drove away, but Grover followed them.
Alvarado fired three shots at Grover before driving away, said the prosecutor.
The first incident occurred April 1 at the Howard Johnson motel in Chula Vista at 8 .am., when a couple were robbed at gunpoint. Other kidnapping and assaults occurred at a San Ysidro motel after a resident found Pedraza’s wallet that he accidentally dropped in a parking lot. Pedraza accused a man of stealing money from the wallet, and he fractured the man’s facial bones in punches.
A status conference will be held May 17 and a May 18 preliminary hearing was set.
