Andrew Levi Hammond was convicted in Fresno County Superior Court of three counts of first-degree murder. The three men he was found guilty of killing, Fernando Gonzales, Steven Rice and Brandon Munoz, died in separate incidents in the city of Fresno, one in September 2020 and two twelve days apart in the autumn of 2022. Prosecutors presented each as a separate incident.
A jury returned its verdict on May 1, 2024, finding Hammond guilty on all counts and all associated enhancements. On June 27, 2024, Judge Jonathan Conklin sentenced him to three consecutive terms of life without the possibility of parole, and an indeterminate term of 75 years to life. He was 29 years old and lived in Oakhurst.
He was 27 when additional charges were filed against him in January 2023 and 29 on the day of sentencing, which places his birth in 1994 or 1995. In 2023 and 2024 he was described as a resident of Coarsegold, and at sentencing as a resident of Oakhurst.
The prosecutor's office listed earlier convictions at sentencing: felony auto theft, felony evading, and three felony counts of assault likely to cause great bodily injury.
Fernando Gonzales was 41 and lived in Fresno. He died on September 28, 2020, in the city. The Fresno Police Department investigated, and the murder count for his death was refiled after further investigation by the department.
At trial, the lead Fresno Police detective, Ryan Rockwell, testified about the first case, and prosecutors told jurors that evidence linked Hammond to it.
Steven Rice, 47, of Fresno, died on October 21, 2022. Murder charges for Rice's death were filed on November 8, 2022, and Hammond was held in custody on those charges from that point.
Brandon Munoz was 39 and from Fresno. He died on November 2, 2022, twelve days after Rice, in the city. The District Attorney's office described a dispute over a small unpaid debt.
The Munoz case was the one in which jurors heard their first eyewitness account. A woman testified on April 25, 2024, identifying Hammond as responsible for Munoz's death. Defense counsel questioned her eyesight and reliability on cross-examination.
The District Attorney's office filed the first murder charges on November 8, 2022. By January 2023 the amended complaint carried two counts of murder with two enhancement allegations and two multiple-murder special circumstance allegations. The Gonzales count was carried in a second case. The office announced that, if Hammond were convicted of all charges and allegations, he faced life without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, and said it had not yet decided whether to seek death. Hammond was arraigned on the added charges on January 11, 2023, in Department 11 of Fresno County Superior Court.
A preliminary hearing took place over several days in July 2023, with testimony on July 25. Detective Rockwell, the lead investigator for the Fresno Police Department, appeared as a witness. Senior Deputy District Attorney Kelly Smith of the Homicide Unit prosecuted the case throughout. In July 2023 prosecutors had not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty.
Opening statements came on Monday, April 15, 2024, in Fresno County Superior Court, with Judge Jonathan Conklin presiding. Prosecutors expected the trial to last five to six weeks, with dozens of witnesses and hundreds of exhibits, and presented each of the three incidents separately.
Smith told jurors the case was about disrespect, and that Hammond "kills when he is angry." She described him as having a bad temper. The defense attorney, Richard Beshwate, told the jury the three deaths were separate events, each preceded by an argument, and that Hammond acted in self-defense in each.
Testimony followed the incidents in order. In the first week the jury heard from the Fresno police witnesses about the 2020 case. By April 23 the trial had reached the Munoz case, and on April 25 the eyewitness gave evidence.
The case went to the jury, which returned its verdicts on May 1, 2024. In closing, prosecutors went through the three incidents one by one.
The jury found Hammond guilty of three counts of first-degree murder and all associated enhancement findings. On June 27, 2024, Judge Conklin imposed three consecutive terms of life without the possibility of parole, together with an indeterminate term of 75 years to life, in state prison.
The charges were brought in Fresno County Superior Court, and the District Attorney's Homicide Unit prosecuted them. Two multiple-murder special circumstance allegations were filed in January 2023. The District Attorney's office said at that point that a conviction on all charges and allegations would expose Hammond to life without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, and that it would announce later whether it would seek death. The sentence imposed in June 2024 was life without the possibility of parole, in three consecutive terms.
Hammond's defense was self-defense: his attorney told the jury that each of the three deaths was a separate event in which Hammond acted to protect himself. The jury rejected that account on all three counts. The defense also challenged the reliability of the Munoz eyewitness. The jury found Hammond guilty on that count as well.
September 28, 2020: Fernando Gonzales, 41, of Fresno, dies.
October 21, 2022: Steven Rice, 47, of Fresno, dies.
November 2, 2022: Brandon Munoz, 39, of Fresno, dies.
November 8, 2022: murder charges filed against Hammond; he is held in custody.
January 11, 2023: arraignment on the added charges, including a murder count for the 2020 death.
July 25, 2023: preliminary hearing testimony.
April 15, 2024: opening statements at the jury trial.
May 1, 2024: jury finds Hammond guilty on all counts.
June 27, 2024: Judge Conklin sentences him to three consecutive terms of life without the possibility of parole plus 75 years to life.