ADRIAN RIOS - 17 yo -(2009) Hemet CA

Police have arrested the parents
of a 17-year-old girl who's been missing since the burned body of a
teenage boy was found in a Southern California backyard.Didia
and Anthony Sharp were arrested Friday during a search of their home in
Hemet. Police Sgt. Dave Quinn said officers found a rifle, handgun and
ammunition and arrested the pair on suspicion of illegal possession of
an assault weapon.Their daughter Felicia Sharp is wanted as
accessory to murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Adrian Rios.
Police believe Sharp's boyfriend Jose Campos shot Rios last month, then
with her help, made a bonfire and burned the body. Sharp and Campos are fugitives.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Newly unsealed search warrants reveal detectives' efforts to find two fugitive teenagers wanted in the 2009 killing of a Hemet 16-year-old.Portions of the search warrants were released Tuesday at the request of The Press-Enterprise newspaper.Police believe Jose Campos shot Adrian Rios and burned his body in a backyard bonfire, with the help of his girlfriend, Felicia Sharp.
Rios was last seen going to the Campos home to watch a football game on
Nov. 15, 2009. Human remains were found in Campos' backyard days later.


According to the warrants, police found Rios' bloody
shoe and burnt clothing, a machete, empty gas can and a severed,
charred human foot in Campos' backyard. Campos' mother and stepfather
told police Campos took their SUV, which was found intentionally burned
a week later.The warrants also revealed investigators found possible bone fragments in the backyard.

Court documents show that a
bloody mattress pad and carpet with traces of blood were found in a
Riverside County home where a 17-year-old's burned body was found. A
page of a Dec. 1 search warrant was unsealed by a judge on Monday.
Other portions of search warrants unsealed last week said police found
a bloody shoe and burnt clothing, a machete, an empty gas can and a
severed, charred foot in the backyard of the home of 18-year-old Jose
Campos. The foot and other charred fragments were determined to
be those of Adrian Rios, who vanished while visiting Campos in
November. Campos has been charged with shooting Rios and
disposing of his body in a backyard bonfire. An arrest warrant has been
issued for Rios and his girlfriend. Both remain at large.

Two fugitive teens have been arrested in connection with the murder of
17-year-old Adrian Rios, whose charred remains were found buried in a
backyard in Hemet.
Jose Campos and his girlfriend Felicia Sharp, who were both 17 at
the time of the murder, were apprehended in Mexico and were expected to
be transported back to Riverside County Wednesday night.


They
are suspected in the death of Rios, who was killed shot, cut up and
burned in a bonfire in an attempt to conceal the crime. Rios' charred
remains were found in a shallow grave in the backyard of Campos' home
on the 1400 block of Bluejay Way on Nov. 18. Police said they
believe Rios was murdered the night of Nov. 15 or early Nov. 16, with a
total of six people present during or just after the crime. Police
following up on a missing-persons report filed by Rios's mother and a
tip from a neighbor searched the Bluejay Way home and found human
remains in the backyard.
Police also found a machete, butcher knives, a bullet casing, burnt
clothing and an empty gas canister at the home, as well as drag marks
in the backyard. Campos, who was named in a $2 million warrant
disappeared the night after a huge bonfire was spotted at a home on
Bluejay Way last Nov. 15. Neighbors reported a powerful stench
emanating from the Sunday night bonfire, which was set after several
people reportedly gathered at the house to watch a football game,
according to police. Campos had lived in the home for a few
months with his parents, but neighbors said the family moved out about
a week before the bonfire. Sharp, who was initially reported
missing the same time, had been questioned early in the investigation
and released. She then disappeared. The mother and stepfather of Jose Campos were detained in December but were never charged.

As sad as this story is, Im glad that they have been arrested and hopefully will be charged as adults and will be taken out of Society....WTH is wrong with these teens today???? I just cant wrap my mind around it...

A
teenage murder suspect and his girlfriend were hiding from police in
Mexico, off the radar from authorities, for months before they were
located and returned to Hemet this week, the city's police chief
said. Sometime after the Nov. 15 death of Adrian
Rios, police said, 18-year-old Jose Campos and his girlfriend,
Felicia Sharp, 17, fled across the border. They were found living
in Mexicali, just south of the U.S. town of El Centro, and
arrested Tuesday evening. Following their return
to Hemet at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Campos was questioned and booked
about 5 a.m. Thursday at the Southwest Detention Center in
French Valley, according to jail records. Bail was set at $2
million. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday in a
French Valley courtroom, outside Murrieta, to enter a plea to a
first-degree murder charge. Hemet police
said they would recommend Sharp be charged with accessory to
murder. She is being held at Juvenile Hall.
Campos is accused of shooting his 17-year-old friend and then burning
the body in his backyard, with Sharp's help.
Police do not know what the motive may have been, Dana said.
"This has been a very significant case for the city of
Hemet. A child was brutally murdered, burned in a backyard and
frightened our entire community," Hemet Police Chief Richard Dana
said. "We followed up on the case daily. Despite the other
difficulties Hemet is having lately, with attacks on our police
officers, this has been a significant case and we have not let
go." Along the way, the two teens were aided by
several unidentified people who provided them with food and
shelter, Dana said. By tracking those people, detectives were led
to Mexico. Authorities have not ruled if anyone will be charged
as accessories. Police said they have been in
contact with Campos' parents and Sharp's mother regarding the
arrests. Based on the heinousness of the crime,
Campos is being tried as an adult even though he was 17 at the
time of Rios' death, Assistant District Attorney Chuck Hughes
said. Riverside County district attorney's
officials declined Thursday to comment on any charges against
Sharp, citing confidentiality because she is a juvenile. Juvenile
court matters are private, by law.

Weekend memorial services are
planned for a Hemet teen whose burned and dismembered body was found in
his alleged killer's backyard. A public visitation, memorial
service and dove and balloon releasing ceremony for Adrian Rios are
planned for Saturday and Sunday at a Hemet mortuary. Police
say Rios was killed when he went to a friend's house to watch a football
game in November. Prosecutors say the friend, 18-year-old
Jose Manuel Campos shot Adrian Rios and burned his body in a bonfire
with the help of his 17-year-old girlfriend, Felicia Sharp. Campos
and Sharp were found four months later by Mexican authorities in the
border town of Mexicali. Campos pleaded not guilty this month
to murder charges and will be tried as an adult.

Teen Admits To Helping Douse Body With Gasoline, Hide Murder


Andres Ruiz Confessed To Helping Hide Dismemberment Of Adrian Rios



September 2, 2010



HEMET -- A Riverside County judge sentenced a Hemet teenager to six months in jail on Thursday for hiding evidence in the brutal killing of a local teenager.


Andres Ruiz, 18, admitted helping murder suspect Jose Campos dispose of 17-year-old Adrian Rios' body.


On Nov. 15, Ruiz claimed the victim got into an argument with Campos' girlfriend Felicia Sharp while they were watching a football game at Campos' home in Hemet. He said Campos shot Rios defending his girlfriend.


Police claimed Campos burned Rios' body in a backyard bonfire and dismembered it with Sharp's help.


Ruiz admitted to helping find gasoline to douse the body with and light it on fire.


Police claimed Campos and Sharp then fled the country to escape prosecution, but police captured them in March and brought them back to Hemet to face charges.


Ruiz pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder prompting Thursday's six-month sentence.

http://www.kesq.com/news/24860252/detail.html

Friday, September 30th, 2011

MURRIETA - An Oct. 7 trial date was confirmed today for a young man accused of killing a 17-year-old Hemet boy, then dismembering and torching his remains.

Jose Manual Campos, 19, could face 50 years to life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder, as well as gun and great bodily injury allegations in the Nov. 15, 2009, death of Adrian Rios.

During a status hearing before Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mark Peterson today, prosecutors and the defendant's attorneys indicated they would be prepared to move ahead with pretrial motions next Friday. Jury selection is expected to get under way the following week.

Campos is being held in lieu of $2 million at the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta.

During a preliminary hearing last October, Hemet police investigators alleged the defendant killed Rios while the victim was visiting him and several other youths at the Campos family home in the 1400 block of Bluejay Way.

Rios went there to watch a Sunday afternoon football telecast and apparently got into a fistfight with another viewer, Ivan Andres Ruiz, 18, according to police.

"The evidence obtained during an investigation by Hemet police detectives shows that ... Rios and Campos began to argue, and Campos brandished a rifle and then shot Rios," said District Attorney's spokesman John Hall.

The two boys may have been at odds over a mutual love interest, then-16- year-old Felicia Sharp, who was also at the house, according to authorities.

When Rios failed to return home that night, his mother reported him missing, leading investigators to search the Bluejay Way residence two days later.

In a backyard fire pit, detectives discovered some of the victim's remains and located additional body parts in a remote area of Canyon Lake.

Hall said DNA tests confirmed the remains were Rios'.

While scouring the Bluejay Way property, forensic technicians also located a spent .22 caliber shell casing, a machete, a shovel, butcher knives, a gas canister, pieces of burned clothing, rope and an earring, according to court documents.

During the preliminary hearing, Ruiz admitted assisting in the disposal of the victim's body. He pleaded guilty in September 2010 to being an accessory to murder and was sentenced to 180 days in county jail and three years probation.

Campos and Sharp fled to Mexico, where they were located and extradited back to the United States four months later.

Campos' mother and stepfather, Maria Alvarado Seym and Jose Juan Seym, were initially arrested on suspicion of being accessories but were later cleared of any wrongdoing.

Sharp was charged as an accessory and will be tried in juvenile court.

http://www.myvalleynews.com/story/59014/

HEMET: Teen’s trial opens in fire pit murder case

Jose Campos, 19, appears in court during the start of his trial on Thursday. Campos is charged with killing his friend, Adrian Rios, 17, then burning and dismembering his body.

Published: 13 October 2011 01:13 PM

The mother of a Hemet teen sobbed on the witness stand Thursday morning and told of how she searched for him two days before finding his bloody shoe and burnt clothing in a friend's backyard.
After going door to door in neighborhoods and driving through the night looking for her 17-year old son, Elodea Lopez returned to a home where he was last seen. The boy's charred remains and severed foot later were found in the backyard.
“I felt something in my heart,” Lopez said softly, holding a hand to her chest. “I saw something on the floor that made me look in the back. I saw all the dirt in the backyard and I felt my son was there. At the same time, I said ‘It's not him.’”
Jose Campos, 19, is charged with murder in the death of Adrian Rios, 17, whose body authorities say was burned in a backyard fire and dismembered at Campos' Hemet home on Nov. 15, 2009. In the days that followed, they said, Campos disposed of the body in Canyon Lake before fleeing to Mexico for five months with his girlfriend. Hemet police and U.S. Marshals captured him in March 2010. Campos faces 50 years to life in prison if convicted.
As the trial began Thursday in a French Valley courtroom, Campos sat stiffly in his chair. He looked forward emotionless while wearing a black suit and horn-rimmed glasses. His mother and stepfather, Jose and Maria Seym, watched from the back of the courtroom.
“This case will take you to a place where friends surrender to senseless violence and humanity is eclipsed by savagery,” Deputy District Attorney Burke Strunsky told jurors in his opening statements. “There are no heroes, only a group of young people carrying out a variety of horrible things they later tried to cover up.”
Campos' defense attorney C.R. McReynolds declined to give an opening statement but could do so later. He has previously argued that Campos didn't fire the round that killed Rios.
Rios' mother sat in the front of the courtroom as prosecutors showed slides of a charred T-shirt and shorts, bone fragments and all that was left of her son's remains.
Lopez, the first witness to testify, broke down in tears when McReynolds asked about her son's troubled past, including her previous calls to police when he didn’t come home at night.
“He's not a good boy.” Lopez said. “He's not the best. But no one deserves to have this happen.”
Authorities said Rios had gone to the home that afternoon on Bluejay Way in southwestern Hemet to watch a San Diego Chargers football game.
Rios, Campos, his girlfriend Felicia Sharp and another friend, Ivan Ruiz, were smoking marijuana and drinking Mad Dog wine coolers through the afternoon, authorities said. They were part of a high school clique called Nemesis.
That evening, Rios and Ruiz were arguing in Campos' bedroom when Rios punched Ruiz and said he wanted out of the clique, Strunsky said. Campos pointed a .22 rifle at Rios when Ruiz left to clean up his bloody nose, the prosecutor said.
Ruiz told police he heard Rios taunt Campos, “You're not going to shoot me.” Ruiz heard a gunshot from the other room and returned to find Campos standing over the boy's body.
Ruiz said Campos told his girlfriend to clean up the blood while he and Ruiz dragged the body to a makeshift grave and fire pit dug in the backyard, Strunsky said.
Campos and Ruiz rode their bikes to a Hemet Walmart, where they bought McDonald's hamburgers and a gas can. They were seen on surveillance cameras filling up the can before riding home.
When they returned, Strunsky said, Ruiz recounted Campos saying: “We’re going to have a barbecue.”
Prosecutors said the boys doused Rios' body with gasoline and set it ablaze. They drank beer while watching the towering flames, Strunsky said.
While the body burned, Campos' parents returned home from church with his sisters and a friend, Jose Rodriguez.
Rodriguez testified Thursday morning that he went to the backyard, where Campos was stoking the fire and Ruiz was “hacking” at the boy's head with a shovel.
“I thought a bonfire was burning logs,” Rodriguez said. “He was feeding the fire, but then I look from the legs down and saw a body. I thought it was a mannequin or a joke ... We were all in shock.”
Rodriguez said Campos' stepfather, Jose Seym, pulled the teen aside in the backyard. Rodriguez said he overhead Campos tell his stepfather he shot Rios.
“You heard Jose Campos say he shot the person on fire?” Strunsky asked.
“Yes.”
McReynolds, Campos’ attorney, questioned Rodriguez about why he did not go to the police in the highly publicized case until three weeks after seeing the burning body. Rodriguez noted that he did not tell prosecutors until last week that he overheard Campos admitting to the shooting.
Prosecutors plan to call several witnesses in the next two weeks who they say will testify that Campos bragged and discussed the killing.
The day after the shooting, Campos' mother called his brother-in-law Renee Lopez, to help dispose of the body, Strunsky said. Renee Lopez said Campos asked him for a saw and where the nearest lake was, the prosecutor said.
Renee Lopez drove with him to Canyon Lake, but left in a separate vehicle while Campos stayed behind with the remains. Police said Lopez later led detectives to where the body had sunk in the lake. A Riverside County sheriff's dive team recovered several bones and remains that tested positive for Rios' DNA.

http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/hemet/hemet-headlines-index/20111013-hemet-teens-trial-opens-in-fire-pit-murder-case.ece?ssimg=345822#ssStory345827

HEMET: Witnesses told police of disposing of body

Published: 18 October 2011 01:02 PM

The brother-in-law of the teen accused of killing a friend and burning him in a bonfire told police his relative confessed to the crime, according to court testimony this morning.
Rene Lopez, 23, testified Tuesday morning in the murder trial of Jose Campos, who is charged with shooting Adrian Rios, then burning and dismembering his body in a backyard bonfire in Hemet.
Rios' and Campos' families sat solemnly on opposite sides of the French Valley courtroom as witnesses described how the body was mutilated.
Lopez refused to answer questions about the killing, repeatedly saying he didn't remember helping get rid of the body. He pleaded guilty last year to accessory to murder and was sentenced to felony probation.
Prosecutors played a video of a police interview in which Lopez told detectives that he visited Campos, 19, the day after the killing and saw the burned body. Campos asked him for a saw and the location of the nearest lake.
Lopez said Campos described shooting Rios, 17, in the eye after he got offended during freestyle rapping, according to the video. He told Lopez he burned the teen's body in a backyard fire pit.
“He said they were going to have a barbecue ... He started burning his clothes, but he wasn't burning quickly enough,” Lopez said in the video. “He poured gas and beer on him. It took his buzz away so he went inside to get more beer while they buried him.”
Another witness, Ivan Ruiz, testified Tuesday that he heard Campos shoot Rios during an argument. He found Campos standing over the body. Ruiz also pleaded guilty to an accessory to murder charge.
“I was hoping it was just a dream, but it wasn't,” Ruiz said. “I didn't want to end up in the same place so I was helping. Otherwise I would be done, too.”
Ruiz said he helped drag the body to the backyard. Campos instructed him to get a gas can while Campos went to get McDonald’s hamburgers, Ruiz said.
They returned to the home where they dug a shallow grave, stripped Rios' body and set it on fire, according to Ruiz’s testimony. The flames shot up, singeing Campos’ face, Ruiz said. The body burned for about an hour, including when Campos' family came home, Ruiz said.
Lopez told detectives in the video that Campos’ mother asked him the next day to help get rid of the body.He followed Campos to Canyon Lake, according to the video interview.
In the video, Lopez said he felt sick to his stomach when he saw Rios' charred dismembered body with his hands folded across his chest. He said the body smelled like “cut-up goats.”
Lopez told police he asked Campos if he dumped the body in the lake, to which he answered: “I chopped him up and scattered it. Too bad little homey had to go.”
In December, Lopez led detectives to the same part of the lake where a Riverside County sheriff's dive team recovered the skeletal remains.
During his testimony on the witness stand, Lopez said he was high during police’s video interview and didn't remember Campos telling him about the killing or seeing the body. He said he pleaded guilty to aiding in the crime even though he was not guilty.

http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/hemet/hemet-headlines-index/20111018-hemet-witnesses-told-police-of-disposing-of-body.ece

HEMET: Murder suspect's girlfriend testifies she remembers nothing

Published: 19 October 2011 02:32 PM

The girlfriend of a murder suspect who fled to Mexico with him last year said she remembers nothing and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Felicia Sharp was called to testify Wednesday against her boyfriend, Jose Campos. Campos is accused of shooting 17-year-old Adrian Rios, burning his body in his backyard, dismembering the remains and throwing them in Canyon Lake.
Sharp, now 18, pleaded guilty last year to accessory to murder. She was sentenced to six months in juvenile hall and felony probation.
She admitted in juvenile court that she cleaned up the blood, stoked the fire while Rios’ body was burning and lied to police about being at the home on Bluejay Way in Hemet on Nov. 15, 2009.
Days after the killing, Sharp was interviewed by police but released due to lack of evidence.
Two weeks later, Campos and Sharp fled to Mexico. They were captured by U.S. marshals in March and returned to Riverside County to face trial.
During Sharp’s testimony Wednesday morning in a French Valley courtroom, Judge Mark E. Petersen declared her a hostile witness.
Sharp refused to identify Campos sitting in the courtroom and answered nearly every question during her 45-minute testimony with, “I don't know. I don't remember.”
Sharp said she was diagnosed with PTSD in October 2010 in a Riverside County facility and didn't recognize anyone in the courtroom.
Prosecutors played a jail phone call from last month of Sharp telling Campos she loved him. Phone records show they've talked regularly since his arrest.
Deputy District Attorney Burke Strunsky told her PTSD causes sufferers to have vivid memories of traumatic events.
“Do you realize you picked the wrong illness to fake today?”
Sharp said she was suffering from a mental disorder.
Prosecutors played a video of Sharp talking to police after she was returned from Mexico in 2010.
“At what point did you know it was Jose that shot him?”
“Well I don't know. I just ... I just figured ... Just I knew something went bad,” Sharp answered in the video.
Afterward in court, she said she didn't recognize herself in the recording.
At one point Strunsky asked Sharp, “Do you think a 17-year-old shot, burned, cut up into pieces and thrown into a lake would stand out to you?”
“I don't know. I don't remember.”
Prosecutors said the night of Rios’ death, Campos, Sharp, Rios and another friend, Ivan Ruiz, went to Campos' home to watch a football game. After an afternoon of heavy drinking and smoking marijuana, they were freestyle rapping in Campos' room when a fight broke out and Rios punched Ruiz, giving him a bloody nose.
Ruiz testified Wednesday that he left to wash his face and heard a gunshot about 30 minutes later. He said he returned to find Campos standing over the body.
Ruiz said Campos ordered Sharp to clean up the blood in his room while they dragged the body outside and left to get gasoline. They poured gas over the body while Sharp placed wood beneath the fire to keep the fire going.
Campos' attorney, C.R. McReynolds, has argued that there was no witness to the shooting and Campos did not kill Rios.
McReynolds accused Ruiz of fabricating the story in order to reach a plea deal on an accessory charge.
“You felt disrespected when he punched you and you shot him didn't you?”
“No, that's not true,” Ruiz answered.
During Strunsky’s questioning of Sharp, he played a recording where police asked her whether she though Campos or Ruiz shot Rios.
“So why is it that you think Jose shot him instead of Ivan?” police asked.
“I just do.”
“And at no point during this escapade, you didn't ask him. Is that what you're telling me?”
“I heard him. I heard him talking about it,” Sharp said in the video. “I don't think they really asked him, but he said yeah I —”
“That he shot Adrian?”
“No, he just told me.”

http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/hemet/hemet-headlines-index/20111019-hemet-murder-suspect-s-girlfriend-testifies-she-remembers-nothing.ece?ssimg=351369#ssStory351371

HEMET: Defense blames accomplice in burned body killing

Published: 24 October 2011 01:12 PM

A Hemet teen denied Monday shooting and dismembering a friend during testimony at his murder trial, blaming a rap-crew cohort who was sentenced to probation last year as part of a plea bargain as an accessory.
Jose Campos, 19, took the stand in a French Valley courtroom and said he did not kill 17-year-old Adrian Rios, but did help burn the body in a backyard bonfire. Campos said 18-year-old former Hemet resident Ivan Ruiz, who pleaded guilty to accessory to murder in 2010, shot and killed Rios. Ruiz, who cannot be charged in the case, testified last week.
Campos is charged with murder in the Nov. 15, 2009, killing at his parents’ home on Bluejay Way in Hemet. He faces 50 years to life if convicted. The jury could start deliberating by the end of this week.
“I heard a gunshot and turned back real quick. I asked Ivan, 'Why'd you shoot him, dog?’” Campos said. “I was thinking, ‘Why did Ivan shoot Adrian? What would happen if my parents came home early, or if the neighbors heard the gunshot or if the police came?’”
Campos said Rios suggested burying the body outside, but Campos told him he couldn't do that in his parents’ backyard.
“How do you feel now?” his defense attorney C.R. McReynolds asked Campos.
“Remorse, of course.”
“Do you wish you handled it differently?”
“Yes,” Campos said softly. “I couldn't think straight. My focus was on the body and how to get it out of there. Ivan mentioned burning the body was the only way to make it disappear.”
Both the Campos and Rios families sat in the courtroom during the testimony. Campos' mother and stepfather, who returned home from church on the day of the killing to find the teens burning the body, read Bible passages aloud before the trial.
Prosecutors said Campos shot Rios after he punched Ruiz.
Ruiz testified he left the room to clean up a bloody nose when he heard a gunshot. He said he came back to find Campos standing over the body. Several other witnesses said Campos told them he shot Rios.
After the shooting, Campos said, Ruiz began digging a hole to burn the body. Ruiz asked for gasoline and said he was hungry and needed to sober up, Campos testified. The teens had been drinking wine coolers and beer and smoking pot, he said.
The boys rode bikes to buy the gasoline and Campos bought burgers at McDonald’s. During cross-examination, Deputy District Attorney Burke Strunsky played a surveillance video of Campos eating a burger while Ruiz filled a gas tank.
“You testified you were really upset your friend Adrian was dead,” Strunsky said. “But not 10 minutes after you took the body of your friend to the back patio, you were hungry for a McDonald's hamburger? Does it look like you’re not sorry your friend is dead?”
“Can you see the expression on my face in that video?” Campos said.
“Does shooting someone in the head make you hungry?”
“I didn't shoot anyone in the head,” Campos said, adding that he wasn’t hungry.
The three boys met at the San Jacinto Regional Learning Center and were part of a rapping crew called Nemesis. On the day of the slaying, the teens were freestyle rapping when Ruiz said something about a San Diego gang that offended Rios, who punched Ruiz in response. Campos said he tried to make peace before Ruiz shot him without warning.
Campos said he and Ruiz used a plastic carpet runner to drag the body to the backyard. Campos said he was worried about neighbors seeing the fireball that erupted when Ruiz doused the body in gasoline and set it ablaze.
While the body was burning, Campos said Ruiz described how he had cut up goats to make them cook faster. So he said Ruiz hacked at Rios’ body with a shovel, trying to cut it into pieces.
Campos' family came home from church while the body was burning. His now 15-year-old sister testified Monday that she ran to the backyard thinking they were cooking s'mores, but saw the feet in the fire and ran back inside.
Jose Seym, Campos' stepfather, told his family to pack their belongings and leave.
The next day Campos called his brother-in-law, Rene Lopez, to dispose of the body. Lopez and his friends stole a pickup belonging to Campos’ parents and drove it to Lopez's house in Perris. Lopez set Rios’ body on fire again in his backyard, Campos said. A month later, Lopez showed police where he said Campos threw the remains into Canyon Lake.
Ruiz's mother drove Campos and his girlfriend, Felicia Sharp, to the Mexican border, Campos said. She gave him $100 and took him to a place where he could meet relatives on the other side, he said. Campos and Sharp stayed in Mexico for four months before they were captured by Mexican authorities and U.S. marshals.

http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/hemet/hemet-headlines-index/20111024-hemet-defense-blames-accomplice-in-burned-body-killing.ece

HEMET: Mother confronts murder suspect in video

As a grieving mother accused him of shooting, dismembering and burning her son, a Hemet teen charged with murder smiled and told her that he forgave her in a video screened Tuesday in a French Valley courtroom.
During cross-examination, prosecutors aired the video of a police interview with Jose Campos and Elodea Lopez, the mother of 17-year-old Adrian Rios, whose charred remains were found in Campos' parents’ backyard. Lopez sat in the courtroom wearing a T-shirt bearing her son's picture.
On Monday, Campos said an accomplice, Ivan Ruiz, fired the fatal shot.
On Nov. 17, 2009 — two days after Rios was killed — Lopez reported her son missing and found her son’s bloody shoes and burned clothing at Campos' home on Bluejay Way in Hemet.
She confronted Campos during a police interrogation after he was captured while hiding in Mexico.
“And you think you're smart because you try to cut my son into pieces,” Lopez said in a scene from the video. “Did you forget his shoes in the backyard?”
The video showed Campos leaning his head back, smiling and saying: “Oh my goodness. Man, is that it? ... Oh my God. I wasn't even there at home. ... I left there, OK?”
“You killed my son! ... He is in your house, and part of his body is in your house,” Lopez said.
“You don't know if I did it,” Campos said. “You weren't there. ... Nobody was there.
“The day you know who did it, that's the day when you'll say, ‘I shouldn't have told him that,’ ” Campos said. “And that day I'll still tell you, hey, I forgive you for accusing me. Because I have to forgive just like Jesus forgives.”
After airing the video, Deputy District Attorney Burke Strunsky told Campos he didn't look scared, but appeared arrogant.
Campos said he was defending himself from the boy's mother who told him he would “burn in hell and … suffer.”
During his testimony, Campos said Ruiz shot and killed Rios and then suggested burning the body in the backyard. The remains were found a month later, thrown into Canyon Lake.
Strunsky asked Campos why he helped burn Rios’ body instead of calling the police or an ambulance.
“I thought it was the only way to get rid of him that night,” Campos said. “I felt like I had no other choice. If I called police I risked my family going to jail. Whether you tell them you didn't do it or not, they still want to take you to jail.”
A week later, Ruiz's mother drove Campos and his girlfriend to the Mexican border and gave Campos $100. During the next four months, he rented a room and got a job in a meat market until he was arrested by Mexican authorities and U.S. marshals.

http://www.pe.com/local-news/riverside-county/hemet/hemet-headlines-index/20111025-hemet-mother-confronts-murder-suspect-in-video.ece

Hemet, Calif., Teen Convicted in Burning, Dismemberment of Friend
Leezel Tanglao
Yesterday, 7:18 PM

A southern California teenager was convicted today of dismembering and then burning his 17-year-old friend’s body in November 2009.

A Riverside County jury found Jose Manuel Campos, guilty of murdering Adrian Rios, 17.

Campos, 19, and three other people were at a home in the city of Hemet, Calif., to view a football game on Nov. 15, 2009.

Officials said Rios got into an altercation with Ivan Ruiz, who was in the house, where Rios “punched Ruiz in the nose,” according to a Riverside County District Attorney news release.

Campos then later shot Rios with a .22 caliber rifle, according to prosecutors.

Campos and Ruiz took Rios’ body and lit it on fire and later placed it into a shallow grave in the Campos’ backyard, authorities said.

Neighbors initially told KABC that they noticed a foul smell the night the teens came together to watch the game.

Officials also recovered human remains from Canyon Lake that matched Rios’ profile.

Campos was arrested in connection with the murder after he fled to Mexico.

He faces as much as 50 years to life in state prison and is expected back in court for formal sentencing in December, according to the Riverside County District Attorney news release.

Ruiz was sentenced to 180 days in jail and three years of probation after he pleaded guilty to being an accessory to the crime.

http://abcnews.go.com/m/blogEntry?id=14830937&sid=9326665&cid=7623874

Teen given 50-yr sentence for killing, burning friend

Friday, December 16, 2011

MURRIETA, Calif. -- A Hemet teen was sentenced Friday to 50 years to life in state prison for murdering his friend and later dismembering and burning the body in 2009.

Jose Manuel Campos, 19, was sentenced to 25 years to life for the murder and an additional 25 years to life for personal use of a firearm.

Campos was convicted by a Riverside County jury on Oct. 27, 2011, of the murder of 17-year-old Adrian Rios.

Rios, who was 17 at the time of his death, was murdered after he watched a football game at Campos' home Nov. 15, 2009. Rios was involved in an altercation with Ivan Ruiz, a friend of Campos'. Campos joined in on the fight and fatally shot Rios with a rifle.

It was reported that the boys had also been drinking and smoking marijuana that night.

At some point Rios body was dismembered.


Campos and Ruiz later burned Rios' body in a makeshift grave near a fire pit in Campos' backyard.

Ruiz pled guilty to being an accessory and was sentenced to 180 days in county jail and three years of formal probation.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/inland_empire&id=8470271