Cimarron Bell was convicted in April 2011 of four counts of first-degree murder in Los Angeles County. The jury found that Ineka Edmondson, a 22-year-old woman from Compton and Bell's girlfriend, died on November 11, 2003. It found that three men, Mario Larios, Edgar Valles and Fernando Pina, died on January 27, 2004. The two events were eleven weeks apart, and the verdicts covered both. Bell was 37 and lived in the Whittier area. A jury in Norwalk recommended the death penalty after less than two days of deliberation, and he remains under sentence of death in California.
Ineka Edmondson was 22. She came from Compton and had a relationship with Bell. She died on November 11, 2003. Prosecutors put a financial motive before the jury.
Mario Larios was 23, Edgar Valles was 22 and Fernando Pina was 25. All three died on January 27, 2004, in the Whittier area. The prosecution's case was that Bell caused the three deaths for money, and the jury later found the special circumstance of murder for financial gain to be true.
The case against Bell was assembled after February 2004, when information given to investigators in an unrelated fraud case brought the earlier killing and the January deaths under examination. Bell and a second man, Briaell Michael Lee, were charged together over the deaths of the three men, but the two were tried separately.
Bell's trial took place at the Superior Court in Norwalk before Judge Dewey Falcone. Deputy District Attorney Todd Hicks prosecuted, and Harriet Hawkins represented Bell. On April 5, 2011, the jury convicted him of four counts of first-degree murder. It found three special circumstances true: "multiple murders", "murder for financial gain" and "murder while lying in wait".
The same jury then heard the question of punishment. On Tuesday, April 19, 2011, after less than two days of deliberation, it recommended that Bell be put to death. Formal sentencing was set for June 21, 2011. He was formally sentenced to death on August 9, 2011, and was admitted to the state's condemned population on August 17, 2011. He was 29 at the time of the offenses.
Briaell Michael Lee was 28 when Bell's jury returned its verdicts. His own trial came later. In August 2013 a jury convicted him of second-degree murder in the death of Mario Larios and acquitted him of the murders of Edgar Valles and Fernando Pina. In October 2013 he was sentenced to 40 years to life. In October 2014 the Second District Court of Appeal rejected his claims of trial error and upheld the conviction.
In California every judgment of death goes to the state Supreme Court by automatic appeal, bypassing the Courts of Appeal. The requirement comes from the state constitution and from Penal Code section 1239(b). In October 2014 Bell's case was on automatic appeal and had not yet been heard by that court. No ruling on it is on record.
On March 13, 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order placing a moratorium on executions in the form of a reprieve for all people sentenced to death. At that time there were 737 people on the state's condemned list, and the last execution had taken place in 2006. The order did not change any conviction or sentence, and it released no one. The moratorium remained in force in November 2026, and Bell remained on the state's condemned list.
The two juries reached different results on the same three deaths. Bell's jury convicted him of all four murders. Lee's jury convicted him of one second-degree murder and acquitted him on the other two counts. The outcome of Bell's automatic appeal is not on record.
November 11, 2003: Ineka Edmondson, 22, dies.
January 27, 2004: Mario Larios, 23, Edgar Valles, 22, and Fernando Pina, 25, die.
February 2004: information given to investigators in a separate fraud case brings the deaths under investigation.
April 5, 2011: a Norwalk jury convicts Bell of four counts of first-degree murder and finds three special circumstances true.
April 19, 2011: the jury recommends death.
June 21, 2011: the date first set for formal sentencing.
August 9, 2011: Bell is formally sentenced to death.
August 2013: Briaell Michael Lee is convicted of one count of second-degree murder and acquitted of two.
October 2013: Lee is sentenced to 40 years to life.
October 2014: the Court of Appeal upholds Lee's conviction; Bell's automatic appeal is awaiting a hearing.
November 2026: Bell remains on California's condemned list.