Three men killed in Perris cemetery; crime could be cartel related
The bodies of three men killed in a Perris cemetery were found Monday morning near the grave of a man killed in Mexico in December, prompting investigators to look into whether the killings are connected.
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said in a news conference Tuesday that the killing of the three Perris residents — Jaime Covarrubias Espindola, 50; Jose Maria Aguilar-Espejel, 38; and Rodrigo Aguilar-Espejel, 28 — was possibly linked to cartel violence.
“I mean, three people killed at the same time, that was a message for something, whether it was for someone else, or whether it was to them,” Bianco said.
The men’s bodies were discovered sometime before 10:30 a.m. at the Perris Valley Cemetery in the 900 block of North Perris Boulevard, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
Reports out of Mexico say the man buried in the Perris cemetery was killed in December, the Press-Enterprise reported.
When asked whether it seemed that the men were executed, Bianco told reporters: “All three were killed at the same time there. You can get into semantics of what you would call it, but it certainly seems that way.”
Times staff writer Rosanna Xia contributed to this report.
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