SAN DIEGO — Michael Romero Jr. was found guilty by a jury in the 2003 double murder of Patrick Greene, 30, and Brandon Vigil, 17, in unincorporated El Cajon, California. A guilty verdict on all counts and allegations was delivered Wednesday, ending a case that remained unsolved for more than two decades.
A day earlier, Arleen Poag and her mother, Marie Greene, sat on a wooden slatted bench outside a third-story courtroom in the El Cajon Courthouse waiting for jurors to announce whether or not the man charged with murdering Greene and Vigil in 2003, Michael Romero Jr., would be sent to prison.
“We hoped the jury would be in one door and out the other. I’m hoping they’re taking long because they’re deciding what penalty and which charge to charge him with,” said Arleen Poag, Patrick Greene’s sister and Brandon Vigil’s aunt, when asked how it felt to be waiting for a verdict after all these years…