| For Immediate Release Case # 00NF2681 June 07, 2007 |
Contact: Farrah Emami Spokersperson Office: 714-347-8405 Cell: 714-323-4486 |
MAN CONVICTED OF BLUDGEONING, STABBING, AND MURDERING GAS STATION ATTENDANT 16 YEARS AGO
SANTA ANA – A man was found guilty today of murdering a gas station attendant in a 1991 robbery-homicide and then fleeing to Mexico. Francisco Javier Maldonado, 32, was convicted of manslaughter with an enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon. He faces a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison at his sentencing on June 29, 2007 at 9:00 a.m. in Department C-42, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana.
On August 12, 1991, Maldonado, then 17-years-old, finished his shift working at the Shell gas station on State College Boulevard and Ball Road in Anaheim. He had agreed with two other males to rob the gas station that night and murder the on-duty attendant. The manager, Harold Doorenbos, began his shift at midnight and was in possession of the key to the safe containing approximately $2,800. Doorenbos, 52, who was a father of two children and worked two jobs, was violently bludgeoned by the three attackers over the head with a 25 pound brass lid from the floor safe and his skull was crushed. He was stabbed more than 40 times in the face, back, chest, stomach, and arms. His murdered body was found two hours later.
Maldonado fled Orange County to Mexico and was a fugitive for nine years. In 2000, Orange County authorities received information that the defendant had contracted AIDS and was ill, and had returned to Orange County, possibly to seek medical attention. On August 10, 2000, Maldonado was arrested after he was pulled over while driving on the 91 freeway.
The other defendant in the case, Miguel Rodriguez, 34, pleaded guilty to 2nd degree murder in 1991 and is still in state prison serving a sentence of 15 years to life. He was 18-years-old at the time of the murder. The third defendant, who was 18 or 19-years-old at the time and who is only known by the last name Zamora, was never apprehended and has a warrant for his arrest.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Jerry Schaffer is prosecuting this case.
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