Between March and August 2014 five people were killed in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Sergio Sanchez died in Sylmar on March 14. Gildardo Morales died in Pacoima on August 21, and on the morning of August 24 Mariana Franco, Michael Planells and Gloria Tovar died within a short time of one another in the San Fernando area, Sylmar and Pacoima. Eleven more people were the subject of attempted murder counts for attacks between March and August.
The man convicted was Alexander Hernandez, a resident of Sylmar who was 34 when he was arrested. A Los Angeles County jury found him guilty of five counts of first-degree murder on May 25, 2022, and on August 18, 2022, he was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. The Court of Appeal affirmed the judgment in October 2024, and the California Supreme Court declined to review it.
Hernandez was born on May 12, 1980, and lived in Sylmar, a neighborhood in the northeast San Fernando Valley. When he was arrested in 2014 he had four earlier convictions, the earliest dating to 2004, and some of the counts on which he was later convicted rested on that record.
After his arrest he said very little to investigators, and no explanation for the attacks has been given.
The first death came on March 14, 2014, when Sergio Sanchez, 35, died in Sylmar. The killing was not at first linked to other incidents. The Los Angeles Police Department handled crimes across the Valley through separate divisions, and the incidents of the spring and summer fell to different detectives. Prosecutors later tied further attacks in the spring and early summer to the March killing.
On August 21 Gildardo Morales, 48, died in Pacoima. His was the first death of that week and the first for which Hernandez was charged. Three days later, on Sunday, August 24, three more people died in quick succession. Mariana Franco, 22, died in the San Fernando area. Michael Planells, 29, died in Sylmar. Gloria Tovar, 59, died in Pacoima soon afterward. She was the last of the five.
The Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department both investigated. Because the attacks were spread over five months and handled by different LAPD divisions, detectives did not connect them until later. Investigators identified Hernandez through evidence from the August incidents, linked the earlier incidents to him through evidence from those scenes, and obtained a warrant. Deputies said no other suspects were involved.
Hernandez was arrested in Sylmar on August 24, 2014. He was held without bail until his trial.
On August 26, 2014, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office filed its first charges: one count of murder, for the death of Gildardo Morales, with a special circumstance that could make Hernandez eligible for the death penalty; two counts of attempted murder; and further counts including animal cruelty. His arraignment was set for August 27. He was not charged at first over the three deaths of August 24 and was named as a person of interest in them. Prosecutors said more charges were expected.
The case went to a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court that began on May 23, 2016, before Judge Stephen A. Marcus, with Deputy District Attorney Michele Hanisee prosecuting. A defense lawyer said at the start of the hearing that the case raised "significant and complex mental state questions." Hernandez was ordered to stand trial that year. The charges comprised five counts of murder, 11 counts of attempted murder, three counts of animal cruelty and further counts. The murder counts carried the special circumstances of multiple murders and a second circumstance relating to the manner of the killings.
The District Attorney's Office announced in 2017 that it would seek the death penalty. In March 2021, under District Attorney George Gascon, it dropped that request, citing his statement that "a sentence of death is never an appropriate resolution in any case." The most Hernandez could then receive, if convicted as charged and found sane, was life in prison without the possibility of parole.
On April 15, 2021, Hernandez pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. He withdrew that plea shortly before trial. Before trial he also pleaded no contest to three counts of animal cruelty involving three dogs. The case had been delayed for years, in part by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The trial took place in Los Angeles Superior Court before Judge Marcus. On May 25, 2022, the jury found Hernandez guilty of first-degree murder in the deaths of Sergio Sanchez, Gildardo Morales, Gloria Tovar, Michael Planells and Mariana Franco. It also convicted him of 11 counts of attempted murder and further counts, and found true the special circumstances of multiple murders and a second circumstance relating to the manner of the killings.
On August 18, 2022, he was sentenced to five consecutive terms of life without the possibility of parole, plus more than 483 years to life. Judge Marcus told him that he should never be released and described his conduct as evil. District Attorney Gascon said Hernandez "will never threaten anyone in the community again."
Hernandez appealed, arguing that his trial lawyer had conceded his guilt over his objection, in violation of his constitutional rights. On October 18, 2024, a three-justice panel of the California Court of Appeal, Second District, rejected that claim in an 18-page ruling and affirmed the conviction. The panel observed that Hernandez had no clear record of insisting on maintaining his innocence and had never stated that goal "despite the trial court's several requests." At the end of December 2024 the California Supreme Court refused to hear the case. He is serving the sentence in California.
The charging papers of 2014 carried a special circumstance that made Hernandez eligible for the death penalty, and in 2017 the District Attorney's Office announced that it would seek that sentence. The request was withdrawn in March 2021 under the directive of District Attorney Gascon that a sentence of death is never an appropriate resolution in any case; the office also declined capital sentencing that month in several other pending cases. With death removed, the maximum penalty on conviction was life without the possibility of parole, which the court imposed five times over.
No motive has been established. The plea of not guilty by reason of insanity was withdrawn before trial, so no jury decided on his mental state at the time of the offenses. The three deaths of August 24 were not part of the first charges, when Hernandez was named only as a person of interest in them; each was later charged and each ended in a murder conviction.
May 12, 1980: Alexander Hernandez born.
2004: earliest of four earlier convictions.
March 14, 2014: Sergio Sanchez dies in Sylmar.
August 20, 2014: first of the attacks later charged as attempted murder in that week.
August 21, 2014: Gildardo Morales dies in Pacoima.
August 24, 2014: Mariana Franco, Michael Planells and Gloria Tovar die; Hernandez is arrested in Sylmar.
August 26, 2014: first charges filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney.
May 23, 2016: preliminary hearing begins in Los Angeles Superior Court; he is ordered to stand trial that year.
2017: District Attorney's Office announces it will seek the death penalty.
March 2021: death penalty request dropped.
April 15, 2021: pleads not guilty by reason of insanity; the plea is later withdrawn.
May 25, 2022: jury verdict, five counts of first-degree murder.
August 18, 2022: sentenced to life without parole plus more than 483 years to life.
October 18, 2024: Court of Appeal, Second District, affirms.
December 2024: California Supreme Court declines review.