Jilted lover arrested for Paso Robles man’s murder
April 25, 2013
Maria Granados
By DANIEL BLACKBURN
An angry, spurned woman may be tied to the murder of a Paso Robles man earlier this year.
Paso Robles Police have named five people believed to have been involved in robbing and assaulting Victor Hugo Sanchez, who later was shot to death as he stood in the driveway of his apartment building.
Investigators were probing the fall 2012 robbery incident when the victim, Victor Hugo Sanchez, was murdered Feb. 23, riddled by multiple bullet wounds.
CalCoastNews reported last week that police were looking into possible links between the two crimes, and that evidence suggested Sanchez may have been killed to silence his testimony in future legal proceedings regarding the robbery.
According to earlier reports and new information from police, these are the events that may have led to Sanchez’s murder.
Sanchez met a woman in October at a downtown Paso Robles bar, the Crooked Kilt (now called Pappy McGregor’s Pub and Grill). After several cocktails, they left the saloon and drove to Templeton, stopping on a darkened road. Another car pulled up behind Sanchez’s vehicle, and two men attacked him with a crowbar, stealing his wallet and car keys.
Nearby residents heard the commotion, and the assailants, along with the young woman, fled.
Sanchez was hospitalized with broken bones and facial injuries.
As the investigation into the robbery and assault proceeded, police zeroed in on the individuals thought to be involved, and were paying particular attention to 49-year-old Maria del Carmen Granados Fajardo, Sanchez’a former live-in girlfriend.
According to Paso Robles detectives, the robbery and assault were planned, orchestrated and financed by Granados after “an acrimonious breakup with Sanchez.”
Joseph Villarreal and Crystal Garner
The young woman Sanchez met in the bar is identified as Crystal Lynn Garner of Stockton, 21. She and her boyfriend, Joseph Villarreal Jr., also of Stockton, are murder suspects, as is Garner’s sister, Christine, 24, and Christine’s husband, David Rodriguez Hernandez, 37, both of Ceres. The latter two fled to Mexico after Sanchez’s murder, and the older sister was extradited to Paso Robles on April 18.
Hernandez remains on the loose in Mexico but is being sought by Mexican authorities.
Granados was in Fayetteville, Georgia, when she was taken into custody. She awaits a trip back to California.
Authorities said they continue to investigate possible connections between Sanchez’s murder, and the earlier robbery and assault.
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