Slain Coachella Valley Couple: Another Defendant Pleads Guilty

COACHELLA VALLEY, CA — A man accused of involvement in the murders of a Coachella Valley couple pleaded guilty this week.

During a hearing at the Larson Justice Center on Tuesday, Eric Rios, 32, of Coachella pleaded guilty to two counts of being an accessory to a crime after the fact in the killings of Audrey Moran, 26, and Jonathan Reynoso, 28, who disappeared on May 10, 2017.

In total, six defendants were arrested and subsequently charged over the summer of 2020 in connection with the couple's slaying following a three-year investigation that included more than 50 search warrants and hundreds of interviews, according to Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco.

Moran was last heard from when she left her home to pick up Reynoso, who may have been returning to the Coachella Valley from the Brawley area the day the couple went missing, according to investigators.

Moran said she was going to give Reynoso a ride to his home, but the SUV she drove was found parked on the side of Interstate 10 in Beaumont two days after the pair were last heard from.

The sheriff's department announced in October of 2020 that skeletal remains discovered at an unspecified location in the Coachella Valley months prior had been positively identified as those of Moran and Reynoso.

Rios has yet to be sentenced for his involvement. Another defendant, 43-year-old Jesus Ruiz Jr., who was arrested in Stockton but spent most of his life in the Coachella Valley, was also charged with two counts of being an accessory to a crime after the fact. Ruiz pleaded guilty in September and was sentenced to two years in state prison. Due to his having been held over that amount of time while on trial, he was released.

Manuel Rios, Abraham Fregoso Jr., Aaron Fernando Bernal, and Adilene Ines Castaneda all previously pleaded not guilty to murder charges in connection to the slayings.

Manuel Rios, 29, of Coachella is charged with two counts of murder. Fregoso, 33, of Indio; Bernal, 29, of Indio; and Castaneda, 28, of Coachella, are charged with one count each of murder and being an accessory to a crime after the fact.

Those four defendants, who all remain jailed without bail, are also facing a special-circumstance allegation of killing a witness of a crime, which could make them eligible for the death penalty if prosecutors opt to pursue it.