Hung Jury Prompts Mistrial for Man Accused of Killing Menifee Car Wash Manager

BY PAUL J. YOUNG, CITY NEWS SERVICE:

A mistrial was declared Thursday for a man accused of fatally stomping a Menifee car wash manager during a dispute over missing clothes.

A seven-woman, five-man jury deliberated for five days, taking multiple votes on whether to convict Jeremy Joseph Robbins of second-degree murder for the death of 60-year-old Wesley “Wes” Uyekawa. The jury foreperson informed Riverside County Superior Court Judge Charles Koosed Thursday afternoon that the vote was 9-3 in favor of guilt, and there was no chance of overcoming the impasse, prompting the judge to declare the panel hopelessly deadlocked.

Seven members of Uyekawa’s family sat silently during the proceeding.

Robbins, who remains in custody in lieu of $1 million bail, slapped his attorney’s back and shook his hand as the victim’s relatives looked on.

Koosed scheduled a status conference for Feb. 18, when the prosecution will announce whether it intends to proceed with a retrial of the 39-year-old Lancaster resident.

Deputy District Attorney Michael Lough built his case around a security surveillance videotape that captured most of the March 23, 2014, confrontation at the McCall Storage & Car Wash.

Lough used the tape to reconstruct events leading up to the encounter, beginning with Robbins’ visit to the car wash on the afternoon of March 22.

Images showed that after he vacuumed out his four-door sedan, he left the business without retrieving dry-cleaning that he’d taken out and placed on a fence. A couple hours later, another car wash customer snatched the articles before driving away.

Lough played segments that showed Robbins arriving the following morning, parking in a handicap spot and searching for his dry-cleaning. The defendant appeared visibly upset when unable to find the clothing, circling the parking lot outside the main office, eventually knocking repeatedly on the glass door to the business, at which point Uyekawa answered.

The video recorded no sound as the victim and defendant spoke for the first time uneventfully. Robbins departed the business, but surveillance video showed him returning roughly 20 minutes later with his girlfriend in the front passenger seat.

Uyekawa had gone into the apartment adjacent to the main office, where he lived on-site.

Cameras captured Robbins stalking around the business, making his way to the residence, from which Uyekawa emerged moments later carrying a birdcage pan, appearing ready to empty it. The video showed Robbins gesturing aggressively and apparently pushing the victim into a thorn bush.

The ensuing 30 seconds of video were obscured by a wall. However, Uyekawa later told sheriff’s investigators that Robbins -- convinced that the car wash manager had stolen his garments and wouldn’t give them back -- turned violent. The victim alleged that he was punched in the face and fell to the ground, where he attempted to grab onto the defendant’s leg.

Lough alleged that Robbins stomped the older man’s stomach before fleeing the scene. The defense insists that Uyekawa was the aggressor and that Robbins reacted accordingly.

The video showed Uyekawa gripping his abdomen in obvious pain. He was transported to Menifee Valley Medical Center for an examination, but was released later in the day.

The victim was found by a coworker the following morning, dead in his apartment from a ruptured small intestine.