Updated at 11:35 a.m., April 2, 2015
The gunman in the “thrill” killing of a 21-year-old developmentally disabled man killed nearly four years ago in Lincoln Acres, near National City, pleaded guilty today to first-degree murder and lying in wait.
Humberto Galvez, 22, will be sentenced on April 24 to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the April 29, 2011, slaying of Jordan Hickey. Galvez originally faced the death penalty.
“It was a brutal, heinous, callous killing. We think there’s no excuse,” Deputy District Attorney David Grapilon said outside court. “It’s one of those cases that really chill you to the bone, knowing that people are out there that can do mean (and) evil things like this.”
Sheriff’s deputies responding to a report of gunfire found Hickey mortally wounded near his bicycle on a sidewalk alongside Grove Street, a few blocks from his home in National City. He died at the scene.
Authorities said Galvez and co-defendant Juan Ignacio Gomez were “driving around, essentially looking for someone to shoot,” and just happened to pull up alongside Hickey, who was on his way home when he was shot three times. A detective testified that Galvez said “he just wanted to see what it was like to shoot somebody.”
The case went cold, but eventually a relative of the defendants, who are cousins, came forward and gave authorities information about Hickey’s murder.
Gomez and Galvez were arrested at a home in Chula Vista about a year later.
“The message is that if you commit a crime, the Sheriff’s Department and law enforcement will pursue it to at all lengths, to all extent of their abilities, to ensure that justice is done,” Grapilon told reporters. “And don’t think that you can get away with crimes like this. The community will be looking for you, law enforcement will be looking for you, and justice will eventually find you.”
Gomez, 24, was convicted last week of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He also faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, and is scheduled to be sentenced the same day as his cousin.
—City News Service
