Javier Fernandez, a grandfather of six, was sitting in his car with his mutt Doggie on his lap when someone in a silver Honda CRV pulled up next to him and asked, “where are you from?”
Before the 52-year-old Malaga resident could answer, several gunshots rang out from the Honda, striking Fernandez. As the Honda sped off, Fernandez, bleeding from his stomach, staggered across the street where he collapsed in a yard, according to an eyewitness to the shooting, Onesimo Valdovinos.
Someone from the home came out to try and help.
“One of them was holding his head up, trying to lift it from the floor,” Valdovinos testified.
Valdovinos was the first witness Tuesday in the preliminary hearing for 21-year-old Richard Aguilar, who is charged with the murder of Fernandez.
The shooting happened on July 9, 2021 at about 9:30 a.m. in the 3000 block of E. Olney Ave. in Malaga, a neighborhood in southeast Fresno County bordered by manufacturers and warehouses.
Valdovinos was several feet from the shooting and was cleaning the yard Fernandez parked in front of when the shooting happened.