A little  after 2 a.m. on the morning of April 15, 1994, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy Walter Watterson was patrolling along a section of Highway 62, also known as  Twentynine Palms Highway. About a half-mile east of Canyon Road, he saw an eastbound van driving erratically, its high beams and emergency flashers on.  After effectuating a stop in which the driver, 22-year-old Enrique Muñoz, came to a halt in the middle of Highway 62 west of Rawson Road and then lost consciousness, Watterson strode up to the side of the van and peered inside.
Muñoz was covered in blood, and appeared to have suffered severe trauma to his head, what would later be determined to be a gunshot wound. More shocking still, in the back of the van were the dead bodies of two others, Muñoz’s brother Jesus Muñoz, 17, and Portorio Chavez Cardenas, 24.
After backup and an ambulance arrived at the scene, the still breathing and barely conscious Muñoz brother was transported to Desert Regional Medical Center, where he was treated for what turned out to be multiple gunshot wounds.
Initially, the department allowed the public to believe that Chavez and both Muñoz brothers were dead. In reality, Enrique Muñoz had survived, seemingly miraculously, and an armed guard was stationed in the hallway in front of his hospital room. As Muñoz was making his recovery, detectives were able to coax from him an approximation of what happened. According to Muñoz, he, his brother and Chavez, all of Los Angeles, had been lured to a house in the Coachella Valley by two brothers,  Mario Montes Banuelos and Noe Montes Banuelos. While in Coachella Valley, Muñoz,  Muñoz and Chavez were assaulted and overpowered, forced into the van and driven to Morongo Valley, whereupon they found themselves on a dark and remote dirt road. It was there that the Banuelos brother shot the victims multiple times, Muñoz related.
Muñoz, Muñoz and Chavez were left for dead inside the van. According to Muñoz,  another unidentified individual drove up the dirt road, picked up the Banuelos brothers, and they drove off in that vehicle. Through a Herculean effort, Enrique Muñoz was able to start the van and make his way down the dirt road and onto Highway 62.
Investigators were able to confirm the pertinent elements of what Muñoz had told them. Furthermore, they were able to connect the events of the evening of April 14/morning of April 15, 1994 to circumstances relating to another double slaying in the region that had occurred the previous month. In that case, the bodies of Sergio Robledo Magaña, 19, and Juan Francisco Morquecho, 14, had been found, bullet-ridden, on March 27, 1994 in Thermal, eight days after they had disappeared in the early hours of the morning on March 19, 1994 from the Copacobaña nightclub in Coachella.
Warrants were issued for the arrests of Mario Montes Banuelos and Noe Montes Banuelos in connection with the killings. After several weeks, however, efforts to locate them at any of their known haunts proved unsuccessful, and it was believed they had fled to Mexico. Over the next months and years the case grew inactive.
Twenty-four years passed. In July 2018, with the matter having long lain dormant, investigators learned from the U.S. Marshall’s Service Fugitive Task Force that Noe Montes Banuelos, then 45, had been fatally shot in Sonora, Mexico.
Eighteen months later, at the border crossing in Yuma, Arizona on January 19, 2020, authorities took Mario Montes Banuelos, 49, into custody on a long-extant warrant. When Banuelos waived extradition, San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies went to Yuma to retrieve him to stand trial in the Muñoz and Cardenas murders.
Banuelos was initially booked on murder and attempted murder charges into the  Central Detention Center in San Bernardino. The cold case file on the Muñoz and Cardenas murder case has been handed over to Sheriff’s Detective Art Alvarado. Deputy District Attorney Justin Crocker is prosecuting Banuelos.
Indications are that the district attorney’s office is ready to proceed with the case at the Joshua Tree Courthouse in rapid fashion, with a pretrial hearing set for 8:30 a.m. on April 28, and if no continuances are requested by Banuelos’s attorney, Gary Wenkle Smith, trial commencing on May 4.
Smith told the Sentinel Banuelos “is not” guilty based upon the facts of the case. “I’d rather give you the details when we have three counts of not guilty,” Smith said.
-Mark Gutglueck

The two members of the San Bernardino City Council most closely affiliated with Mayor John Valdivia appear to have won reelection in Tuesday’s polling, one by a very thin margin that could yet be reversed.
Juan Figueroa, the council’s newest member who was elected last May in a special election to fill in the vacancy representing the city’s Third Ward created when Valdivia was elected mayor while serving as Third Ward councilman in 2018, and Bessine Richard, who formed an alliance with Valdivia over the last four years, held off the single challenger each faced in their respective contests that took place on Tuesday.
Figueroa convincingly defeated Luis Ojeda in the Third Ward contest. Figueroa claimed 1,819 votes or 69.08 percent to Ojeda’s 814 votes or 30.92 percent.
Richard’s margin of victory was nowhere near that comfortable. Ward Six’s voters, so far, have retained her in office by seven votes. Richard brought in 1,232 votes or 50.14 percent. Her opponent, Kimberly Calvin, was nipping at her heels with 1,225 votes or 49.86 percent.
Figueroa, who was elected with Valdivia’s assistance last year, and Richard have supported the mayor right down the line in the past. Their support going forward is considered to be even more crucial, as Valdivia finds himself beleaguered with a bevy of accusations that have been lobbed at him by five of his own staff members and one of the city’s commissioners relating to his having created a hostile work environment for them, having engaged in inappropriate behavior including assailing the woman among them with sexually-tinged innuendo, pushing them to engage in activity beyond their job requirements, pressuring them to work on behalf of political candidates he has supported, and seeking to inveigle them in illicit activity he was himself involved in, including receiving money or gifts he had taken from donors, sponsors or other he was not properly reporting, or misusing city assets or funds.
The city, through the law firm that employs the lawyers serving in the capacities of city attorney and deputy city attorney, Best Best & Krieger, is carrying out an investigation into Valdivia’s conduct. Valdivia is likely to need all of the support on the city council he can muster.
Valdivia was a prime mover in both Figueroa’s and Richard’s reelection efforts, helping them to coordinate their campaigns through the political consultant, Chris Jones, who served as Valdivia’s hired campaign manager, and who served in the same capacity for Figueroa and Richard.
On the same day, January 18, 2020, Valdivia made identical $2,000 contributions to both Figueroa’s and Richard’s campaigns. Valdivia provided another $4,241.24 to Figueroa’s campaign in the form of an in-kind contribution. In addition, Valdivia was instrumental in vectoring money from other sources and contributors, many of them those who have previously donated to Valdivia’s electioneering fund.
In the case of Figueroa, this totaled at least $37,250. In the case of Richard, Valdivia was responsible for bringing at least $31,000 into her campaign from other sources.
While Figueroa’s cushion of victory is great enough to eliminate any prospect of the outcome changing, there are yet enough provisional ballots at the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters Office as well as yet-outstanding, yet-to-be-received or yet-to-be counted mail-in ballots that a reversal of Richard’s lead lies within the realm of possibility.
-Mark Gutglueck

Two of the four races in this year’s San Bernardino City Council Election will not be decided until November. Both of those races involve incumbents.
Jim Mulvihill and Henry Nickel were both originally installed on the city council as a consequence of special elections, the former in 2013 and the latter in 2014. They both then stood for reelection in 2015, prior to the city’s 2016 adoption of a new charter which moved the city’s elections from odd to even numbered years. Nickel won the 2015 election outright. Mulvihill was forced into a runoff held in February 2016, in which he prevailed.
This year, both Nickel and Mulvihill were faced with multiple competing candidates, in Nickel’s case five and in Mulvihill’s case four.
Upon the smoke clearing after Tuesday’s election, Nickel was the top vote-getter in the city’s Ward 5 and Mulvihill had captured second place in Ward 7.
In San Bernardino, a winner is declared when a candidate obtains a majority vote. Thus, a straight head-to-head contest between just two candidates in a primary election virtually guarantees that a winner will emerge in that contest, unless the vote ends in the highly unlikely occurrence of an exact tie. In contests with three or more candidates, the possibility exists that no one candidate will obtain a majority of the votes cast, necessitating a run-off between the two top finishers.
Ward 5 voters on Tuesday cast 1,364 votes for Nickel, meaning he captured 37.36 percent of the vote. Taking second was Ben Reynoso, with 871 votes for 23.86 percent. Mike Avellaneda polled 618 votes or 16.93 percent. Brian Davison banked 585 votes or 16.02 percent. Marlo Brooks registered 108 votes for 2.96 percent. Peter Torres finished with 105 votes for 2.88 percent.
Nickel will face off against Reynoso in November.
In Ward 7, Damon Alexander, with 1,046 votes, bested Mulvihill, who pocketed 924 votes. Alexander, however, failed to reach the needed 50 percent plus one vote threshold to achieve outright victory. His percentage was 32.49 to the 28.7 compiled by Mulvihill. Dave Mlynarski, who ran with Mayor John Valdivia’s endorsement and spent more on his electioneering effort than any of the other Ward 7 candidates, garnered 543 votes or 16.87 percent. Esmeralda Negrete achieved the endorsement of 379 of those in the Seventh Ward, good for 11.77 percent. John Abad claimed 327 votes or 10.16 percent.
Mulvihill, who has refined his campaign approach over four-and-half election cycles, including the 2007 and 2011 races where he lost to incumbent Wendy McCammack, has a core group of supporters who have provided him with the basis of his victories in 2013 and 2016. Alexander, however, is an energetic campaigner, one who is not shy about walking precincts, knocking on doors and introducing himself to his would-be constituents. He and Mulvihill will be focused on finding whatever edge they can to achieve election in the fall.

Gilbert Gonzalez of Wonder Valley and his two sons, Gilbert, Jr. and Joseph, have burnished their freebooting reputation as modern day desperados even further.
Their exploits include a 2015 running gun battle in which both Gilbert Gonzalez Sr. and Gilbert Gonzalez Jr. managed to get shot up, but survived. In 2019, Gilbert Jr., 31, again garnered attention when, pursued by law enforcement officers who suspected him of vehicle theft, he plowed over or took out several gravesites in Joshua Tree Memorial Park, and then led the gendarmes on a high speed pursuit into Twentynine Palms.
This week, on Wednesday, Gilbert Gonzalez Sr., 52,  and Joseph Gonzalez, 29, were arrested after deputies with the Morongo Basin Station came to the Gonzalez residence in the 83400 block of Amboy Road to serve a warrant on Joseph Gonzalez, stemming from an incident involving a felony assault he is alleged to have engaged in on the evening of February 15 in Twentynine Palms.
When the deputies contacted Joseph in the front yard of the home and moved to take him into custody in conjunction with the warrant, he was found to be in the possession of methamphetamine. His arrest was fully effectuated and he was transported to Rancho Cucamonga and booked at the West Valley Detention Center.
During their interaction with Joseph, according to the department, deputies “developed additional information,” which was then utilized to inform a search warrant for his father’s residence. Upon serving the search warrant, according to the department, two ounces of methamphetamine were located inside the home owned by Gilbert Gonzalez, Sr. He was arrested, and like his son, transported to and booked into the West Valley Detention Center. His charging sheet said he was arrested on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance for sales. His bail is $50,000. His son’s bail was set at $100,000.
-Mark Gutglueck

In a move as shocking as it was inexplicable, Chino Hills High softball coach Mike Southworth has been terminated, as the Huskies are proceeding further into an undefeated season, are ranked number 4 in the nation by ExtraInningSoftball.com and Number 8 in the nation by MaxPreps.com, and have what many consider to be the best chance yet to recreate the success Southward had as coach of the Huskies in 2012, when they won the CIF-Southern Section Division 3 title.
Over the course of Southworth’s 11 seasons at Chino Hills High, the Huskies have won six league championships and compiled a 286-84-1 record, a .7729 winning percentage.
Southworth, 70, without explanation, was not present during his team’s Baseline League season-opening game Tuesday at St. Lucy’s High in Glendora, which the Huskies won handily, 21-1. He did not travel yesterday with the team to the Dave Kops Tournament of Champions in Bullhead City, which features numerous top ranked teams, including Chino Hills’ rival and defending champion Norco, currently the number 2 team in the county. It was clear that something was amiss when Southworth was not present as field general to oversee his MaxPreps.com eighth-ranked team as it took on MaxPreps.com seventh-ranked O’Connor High of Phoenix, a contest in which the Huskies eked out a nail-biting 4-3 win, a victory likely to boost them to the number 7 position nationally.
Initially, the report was that Southworth had tendered his resignation. This morning came word that if in fact he submitted a resignation, it was one that was both ceremonial and forced, as the Chino Valley Unified School District announced, tersely, that he had been dismissed.
The Sentinel’s effort to reach Chino Hills Principal Randal Buoncristiani for an explanation and statement by press time was unsuccessful.
-M.G.

Darren Goodman will remain in the capacity of Upland police chief, at least for the time being, the Sentinel has learned.
A report circulating last week was that Goodman, who began as Upland’s police chief in July 2018 following a 27-year career with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department which featured his then-most recent assignment as a captain heading the division of that department serving as the contract police department for the City of Chino Hills, was on the brink of resigning, or had resigned, his position in Upland.
Details were unclear, but reportedly, Goodman, who has a PhD, was concerned that a provision in his contract with Upland would allow a simple majority of the city council to direct the city manager to fire him without cause. Reportedly, Goodman, concerned with the lack of stability and rationality on the council, wanted a language change requiring that his firing only be able to take place if a defined cause was cited. The police department in Riverside, where Goodman resides, was said to have expressed an interest in hiring him into a senior administrative post.
To a Sentinel inquiry, Goodman on Tuesday, March 3 wrote, “I have not resigned from the Upland Police Department.”
-M.G.

Spring dress rehearsal is in full swing. The temperatures are rising and everyone’s coming out of coats and wearing colorful yellows and greens. Dresses are going to be fun in the sun, and so are pink pants, and lets not forget floral jumpsuits. Everyone outs their outfits together and things always look impressive in spring its al about change. If you need to wear a sweater go ahead but please keep adding vibrant color to your wardrobe. No matter where the weather is going I think winter has passed. So much fun what next? Flip flops! Enjoy the slice of spring, be happy.

“What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today, when human contacts are so quick. Fashion is instant language.” —Miuccia Prada