3 Banning Inmates Charged With Murder In Cellmate's Beating

BANNING, CA — Two convicted felons and another man accused of fatally beating a fellow inmate at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning were charged Friday with first-degree murder.

Aaron Allen Aubrey, 26, Jason Lynn Barton, 43, and Richard Hampton, 37, allegedly killed 29-year-old Rosendo Echevarria earlier this month.

Aubrey and Hampton have since been relocated to the Benoit Detention Center in Indio, while Barton has been moved to the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.

They are slated to make a joint appearance before Riverside County Superior Court Judge Timothy Hollenhorst on Monday afternoon at the Banning Justice Center.

According to sheriff's officials, Echevarria was attacked about 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 8 within a cell block where he and the defendants were housed.

By the time correctional deputies reached Echevarria, he was dead, Sgt. Rick Espinoza said.

The assailants were not immediately identified, but Espinoza said the ensuing investigation ultimately pointed to Aubrey, Barton and Hampton, who were formally arrested and removed from the Smith jail in the last week.

A possible motive for the attack has not been disclosed.

Aubrey is separately charged with murder for allegedly killing his 51- year-old mother in Riverside and then stealing her car in June 2018. He has been jailed since that time, awaiting trial.

The defendant has no documented prior felony convictions.

Barton is separately charged with gunning down his father and girlfriend in Moreno Valley on Christmas Eve 2015, and he has been jailed and awaiting trial since then. He has prior convictions for assault with a deadly weapon, domestic violence resulting in traumatic injuries and felony battery.

Hampton has been awaiting trial for an alleged attempted murder in the Riverside metropolitan area in June 2019, for which details were not available. The defendant has prior felony convictions out of another jurisdiction, but court records did not specify the nature of the offenses.

At the time of his death, Echevarria was awaiting trial on three counts of engaging in oral copulation or sexual penetration of a child under 10 years old, two counts of committing lewd acts on a child under 14 years old and one count of engaging in sexual intercourse on a child under 10 years old. The alleged crimes date back to 2013.

According to jail records, Echevarria was arrested in January 2018 at Porterville Developmental Center in Porterville, California. The facility serves people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. For privacy reasons, the state-run facility's personnel office would not confirm whether Echevarria was a patient at the center, but the office did verify that he was never an employee there.

While Echevarria's case was in trial status, but before a jury was seated, his defense attorney made a motion regarding his client's mental competency to stand trial. The court declared a doubt and the criminal proceedings were suspended.

At the time of Echevarria's death, he was awaiting a mental health evaluation, according to John Hall, spokesperson for the Riverside County District Attorney's Office.

—City News Service contributed to this report.