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Alexander Isaiah Aquino, 22, has been convicted of first-degree murder for the 2020 killing of 61-year-old meat market owner Abdallah Abushawish of San Jacinto. After two days of deliberation, a Riverside jury found Aquino guilty, also affirming a special-circumstance allegation of committing a murder during a robbery, among other charges including armed robbery and assault resulting in great bodily injury.
Riverside County Superior Court Judge Valerie Navarro has set the sentencing for Aquino on March 1 at the Riverside Hall of Justice, where he faces life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Currently held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta, Aquino’s co-defendants, Isaiah Ralph Lugo, 26, and Charles Richard Trevino, 27, previously entered guilty pleas to related felony charges and received state prison sentences.
The prosecution’s brief details that on August 19, 2020, Aquino, along with Lugo and Trevino, visited the Nuevo Meat Market in Nuevo with intentions to purchase carne asada for a barbecue. Following a dispute over the meat’s price, which Abushawish defended as reflective of its higher quality, Aquino drew a 9mm handgun and fatally shot the proprietor.