An Anaheim man was found guilty today of following his estranged wife as she took a lunch break from her job at an Irvine preschool and shooting her to death in a quiet residential cul de sac in the Turtle Rock community. Prosecutors had told jurors 37-year-old John Rand Agosta had fired nine times into his wife of two years that June 16, 2011, afternoon, hitting her in the chest, arm and hand.
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Alejandra Hernandez, 2011 OC Homicide No. 26: Estranged Husband Accused of Shooting Her 9 Times
Depressed about the break-up of his marriage six months earlier, Agosta had posted angry messages on Facebook about wanting to buy a gun and saying of his 28-year-old wife Alejandra Hernandez, “If she died I would laugh.”
He followed her car to the Via Siena neighborhood where she liked to enjoy quiet lunches alone. A neighbor heard her say, “Get away from me” before Agosta repeatedly fired shots at her.
He then got into his car to drive off, but the engine would not start. So he got out, walked over to Hernandez's body, turned her over and kicked her once before fleeing on foot. She died at the scene.
He left behind his car, registered to him, with his passport, clothing, toiletries and the gun inside.
Agosta later called a friend who did not know about the murder for a ride. He was arrested later that afternoon at the friend's South County home.
The jury found him guilty today of first-degree murder, and he now faces a minimum sentence of 50 years to life in state prison at a hearing scheduled for Aug. 30.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.