Arraignment Postponed For Corona Movie Theater Shooting Suspect Joseph Jimenez
RIVERSIDE (CBSLA) – Arraignment was postponed Thursday for the man charged in the slaying of two young people in a Corona movie theater last week.
Twenty-year-old Joseph Jimenez appeared in Riverside County Superior Court in the shooting deaths of 18-year-old Rylee Goodrich and 19-year-old Anthony Barajas. However, his arraignment was postponed to Sept. 27.
He is facing two counts of first-degree murder, with sentencing enhancements for using a firearm causing death and lying in wait. If convicted as charged, he is eligible for the death penalty.
In a jailhouse interview with the Press-Enterprise newspaper Wednesday at the Larry D. Smith Correctional Facility in Banning, Jimenez allegedly confessed to the killings, blaming it on voices in his head.
"The voices said my friends and family were going to be killed," Jimenez told the paper.
On the night of July 26, employees found the two victims while cleaning the theater following the 9:30 p.m. showing of "The Forever Purge," at the Regal Edwards Corona Crossings movie theater.
Goodrich was pronounced dead at the scene. Barajas was rushed to a hospital and placed on life support. He was taken off life support and passed away on July 31.
Late on the night of July 27, Corona police detectives raided Jimenez's residence in the 19000 block of Envoy Avenue in El Cerrito, where they found a gun and evidence linked to the movie theater shooting, the department said. The gun matched the caliber of the weapon used in the shooting.
According to a police report obtained by the Press-Enterprise, three friends who attended the movie with Jimenez suspected that he had brought a gun to the screening. They told police he was acting strangely.
The friends allegedly snuck out of the theater during the screening without warning any theater staff or calling police. Two of them later told detectives they saw Jimenez run out of the theater and drive away in a car, the Press-Enterprise reports.
There were a total of six ticketholders in the screening. Jimenez, his three friends, and the two victims, Goodrich and Barajas.
There is no evidence that Jimenez knew the victims, police said. The Riverside County District Attorney's Office has called the shooting random and unprovoked.
