| For Immediate Release Case # 11CF1595 November 15, 2013 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami
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MAN SENTENCED TO 50 YEARS TO LIFE IN PRISON FOR SHOOTING-MURDER OF ESTRANGED WIFE AFTER FOLLOWING HER FROM WORK
SANTA ANA – A man was sentenced today to 50 years to life in state prison for murdering his estranged wife by shooting her nine times in the chest after following her from work. John Rand Agosta, 37, Anaheim, was found guilty by a jury June 17, 2013, of one felony count of murder with a sentencing enhancement for the personal discharge of a firearm causing death.
At approximately 2:00 p.m. on June 16, 2011, Agosta was armed with a firearm and waited outside of his estranged wife’s work in his Ford Mustang. The 28-year-old victim, Alejandra Hernandez, worked at a pre-school in the Turtle Rock area in Irvine.
When Hernandez left work for lunch and began to drive away, Agosta followed her in his car. Approximately half a mile from her work, Hernandez stopped her car in a cul-de-sac and got out.
Agosta murdered the victim by shooting her nine times in the chest. He got back into his vehicle, but was unable to start the engine. Agosta then got out of his car, went back to the victim’s body, turned her over using his foot, and then fled the scene on foot. The Ford Mustang, which is registered to the defendant, was left at the scene.
The Irvine Police Department (IPD), who investigated this case, responded to the scene and located the victim after receiving calls of shots being fired. Hernandez was pronounced dead at the scene.
Agosta called a friend, who did not know about the murder, and asked the friend to pick him up. Agosta went to his friend’s Mission Viejo home, where he was arrested by IPD at 4:30 p.m.
At the sentencing today, two of the victim’s sisters and two of her aunts gave victim impact statements to the court and each described the victim as a person of peace and forgiveness. They discussed the tremendous loss that their family continues to feel and the difficulty in explaining to Hernandez’s young cousins why anyone would want to take her life.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy of the Homicide Unit prosecuted this case.