Testimony Begins In Trial Of CV Man Accused Of Murdering Friend

RIVERSIDE, CA — Prosecution testimony got underway Wednesday in the trial of a 22-year-old man accused of fatally shooting his lifelong friend in Sky Valley during an act of gunplay.

Alexis Yahir Duran of Cathedral City is charged with second-degree murder and sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations for the 2023 death of 17-year-old Adam Pineda of Desert Hot Springs.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jerry Yang on Tuesday seated a jury to hear the case, and jurors returned to the Riverside Hall of Justice on Wednesday morning for opening statements and the start of testimony, which is expected to continue into next week.

Duran is being held on $1 million bail at the Benoit Detention Center.

According to a trial brief filed by the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, Duran and Pineda had been best friends since elementary school, and on the morning of Feb. 4, 2023, the victim and defendant, along with the latter's younger brother, Jose Duran, planned to go to a party together but needed a mutual friend to guide them there, so while waiting for him they parked along Wide Canyon Road in Sky Valley.

The trio had spent most of the previous day and night at a fundraiser to cover funeral expenses for Pineda's family following the suicide of the victim's brother, prosecutors said.

Pineda drove his Jeep Cherokee, with Duran in the right front passenger seat and the defendant's brother in the back seat, either asleep or playing on his cell phone, according to the brief. The threesome got out of the SUV for a few minutes and fired a couple of rounds from a 9mm handgun that Duran had acquired illegally via social media three weeks earlier, the prosecution said.

They then returned to the Jeep, where Duran put the pistol in his lap.

"Pineda took the firearm from the defendant's lap and examined it," the narrative said. "The defendant heard Pineda rack the handgun, and Pineda gave it back to the defendant. The defendant began examining the firearm himself, and while moving the handgun around, pulled the trigger and shot Pineda one time in the right side of his head."

The bullet went through his head, exiting on the left side, according to the prosecution.

Duran and his brother placed the mortally wounded teenager in the back seat, and the defendant drove to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs, where he and his brother carried the victim into the emergency room, then left, the brief said.

They parked the Jeep in a nearby structure and got a ride home from an acquaintance, according to sheriff's investigators.

Pineda was pronounced dead moments later.

A Sky Valley resident who had heard the fatal gunshot alerted patrol deputies, who arrived minutes after the Jeep had driven away. The responding deputy located Pineda's mobile phone with blood on the ground and called 911 via the phone to identify its owner, immediately leading to confirmation from dispatchers that the phone belonged to a person who had been checked into the hospital a short time before, according to the brief.

Duran called Pineda's girlfriend, whose identity wasn't disclosed, along with the victim's uncle, also not identified, allegedly telling them that Pineda had accidentally shot himself while mishandling the firearm, according to prosecutors.

The parties in turn contacted law enforcement, culminating in detectives summoning Duran to the hospital, where he was detained. He told detectives he'd thrown the gun into desert scrub where the Jeep had been parked in Sky Valley, court papers stated. Despite a search, the weapon was never found.

After the defendant allegedly admitted the shooting, he wrote a letter to the victim's mother in which he apologized, saying he "didn't mean to and would never do that to (Pineda) on purpose," Detective Daniel Cline testified during a 2023 preliminary hearing.

An autopsy revealed the pistol was fired from several feet away, not at extremely close range, as might be the case during an accidental shooting caused by the person holding the gun, prosecutors said.

The defense has maintained the shooting amounts to, at most, involuntary manslaughter. The judge at the defendant's preliminary hearing ruled the prosecution's argument for murder was valid because Duran had become familiar with the firearm in the weeks prior to the shooting and knew what could happen if it went off.