Double Murder Off Ramona Expy: 4 Arrested, Charged

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA – Murder charges were filed Friday against two men and two women accused in the deaths of a 19-year-old woman and her male friend, who were gunned down in a car at a San Jacinto intersection.

Martel Patrick McBride and Kenneth Hahn Wilson, both 18, along with Alexis Mary Garcia and Ariel Irene Savoie, both 19, were arrested Wednesday at their respective Hemet residences.

All four defendants are charged with the Jan. 3 murders of 19-year-old Lauren Lopez of San Jacinto and 22-year-old Patrick Powell of Hemet, but Wilson is additionally charged with a special circumstance allegation of taking multiple lives, as well as gun and great bodily injury allegations.

The foursome were slated to be arraigned together Friday afternoon at the Banning Justice Center.

McBride was being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta, while Wilson was being held in lieu of $3 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail in Riverside. Garcia was being held without bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, and Savoie was being held in lieu of $2 million bail at the Byrd Detention Center.

According to Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Walter Mendez, Lopez and Powell were on the Ramona Expressway, approaching Warren Road, when his hatchback was struck by gunfire just before noon.
Mendez said the vehicle came to a stop on the shoulder. Passers-by called 911, and deputies and paramedics arrived moments later, discovering the two victims gravely wounded.

They were taken to Riverside University Medical Center in Moreno Valley, where they were pronounced dead less than an hour later.

Sheriff's officials did not disclose how the four defendants were implicated or offer a motive for the killings.

None of them have prior felony or misdemeanor convictions as adults.

---------------------

PREVIOUS: FRIDAY, JAN 12, 8:51 a.m.

Four suspects from the Hemet area were arrested and are to be arraigned today for fatally shooting a man and a woman in San Jacinto, according to officials.

Authorities developed information about the identities of the individuals involved in the Jan. 3 slayings of 19-year-old Lauren Lopez and 22-year-old Patrick Powell and made the arrests Tuesday after search warrants were served at two residences in Hemet, Riverside County Sheriff's Sgt. Walter Mendez said.

The department's SWAT team, with assistance from the Hemet Police Department, served both warrants without incident -- one at a residence on the 300 block of Monte Vista Way and the other on the 100 block of La Amistad Way, officials said.

Arrested were Ariel Savoie, 19 of Hemet, Kenneth Wilson, 18 of Hemet, Martel Patrick McBride, 18 of Hemet, and Alexis Mary Garcia, 19 from the Valle Vista area of Hemet.

Lopez and Powell were gunned down at 11:47 a.m., Jan. 3, on the Ramona Expressway at North Warren Road in San Jacinto. The victims were found inside a bullet-riddled vehicle that crashed along the expressway. The victims were taken to a hospital, where they died, authorities said.

The four suspects each are being held on $1 million bail.

• ALSO SEE: 'Knock-Knock' Break-In Attempt: Trio Nabbed In Murrieta

--City News Service contributed to this report/Pixabay image via Clker-Free-Vector-Images