[tense music]
- [Reporter] Police say Mario Fierro was shot
and killed on a North Park sidewalk this morning.
♪ Lean on me ♪
♪ When you're not strong ♪
- [Reporter] Mario Fierro was remembered
as a leader at Cathedral Catholic High.
- [Student] Mario was, he was a great coach, mentor,
teacher, friend.
- [Interviewee] There were a total of seven shots fired.
[gunshots firing]
- It sounded like somebody was in a desperate situation.
I remember that the gunshots
were somewhat slow, methodical.
- Definitely appeared to be an execution.
- [Dispatcher] Okay, you said your wife is in a barn
and she's unresponsive?
- [Attorney] This is what he's gonna tell you.
- I had to get out of that situation.
- And I grab the gun.
- Trying to find the first place to put a body.
- No, sir.
- The only thing they could do was kill him.
- [Judge] You want to say anything?
- [Juror] We, the jury, find the defendant...
[dramatic music]
- It was an early Monday morning on February 1st.
It was a beautiful, sunny day.
- [Narrator] At Cathedral Catholic High School
in North San Diego,
it was the first day of classes
after the pandemic lockdown.
- Excitement, we're getting back to life.
We're getting back to what we all wanted,
which was normalcy and face-to-face interaction.
- [Narrator] And the big news at the school
was that two popular teachers
were going to get married,
Amy Gembara and Mario Fierro,
who announced their engagement over the Christmas holiday.
- Once he met her, he knew that that was the one.
They really hit it off.
They would go to church together
and they would like, grade papers together,
lesson plan together.
- I think everybody loved it.
Mario was a social science teacher,
coached football,
and he coached track and field.
- [Narrator] He even helped to keep up morale
during the pandemic.
- Amy was a religion teacher.
Very positive,
deeply faithful.
A deeply faithful woman,
which that was a nice complement for Mario.
[school bell rings]
Mario was very reliable.
He was never late.
Once it got close to like, 8:00 and Mario wasn't here,
everyone started to panic.
- [Narrator] So, the school's principal
called a senior police officer
whose daughter attended the school.
- "I need you to do a wellness check on Mario Fierro."
And it was silent on the other end of the line.
He said to me,
"Kevin, it's not good.
Mario was murdered,
this morning outside of his house."
[police siren wails]
- [Reporter] San Diego Police said about 7:10 Monday morning,
they responded to calls of shots fired
on Kansas Street in North Park.
- [Reporter] Mario Fierro was pronounced dead at the scene
after San Diego Police found him shot
and on the ground near his car.
Police say they have very few leads about the suspect.
- I was considering that maybe
this was a potential robbery gone bad,
attempted carjacking gone bad, with the trunk lid open.
- [Narrator] There was no surveillance video of the scene,
but a camera down the street
picked up the audio of the incident.
[gunshots firing] [indistinct shouting]
- There were a total of seven shots fired.
I believe he was struck about six times.
Majority of the rounds that struck him
were all into the face
and into the back of the head,
definitely appeared to be an execution.
- It sounded like somebody was in a desperate situation.
[gunshots firing] [indistinct shouting]
I remember that the gunshots were somewhat slow, methodical.
[gunshots firing]
There seemed to be a purpose
behind the pauses between the gunshots.
- [Narrator] Detectives first headed to the high school
and turned their attention to Mario's fiancee, Amy.
- When they brought Amy into my office
to let her know that Mario had been murdered,
she let out this like scream of...
Yeah, just this scream of like sadness
and crying uncontrollably.
- [Narrator] Downtown at the district attorney's office,
prosecutors had feared this day might come.
- It was very emotional and my heart just shattered
because, um,
we wanted to protect Amy
and we wanted to protect Mario.
- [Narrator] Over the last year, Mario and Amy had appealed
to the DA's Special Family Protection Unit for help.
- Our office received information that
Amy was a target of stalking
by her ex-boyfriend, Jesse Alvarez.
Stalkers not only target
the object of their obsession,
but many times they go after them
and hurt them by targeting the people that they love.
- [Narrator] Alvarez had been spotted
again and again on the high school campus
after Amy broke up with him.
- He had applied for a number of teaching positions
as a way to try to get on the staff here.
And we were aware of the situation
and I had actually communicated with him a few times saying,
"Hey, we're not interested.
Thanks for your application."
- [Jesse] Hey, Amy, it's Jesse. How's it going?
Hopefully you're well.
- [Narrator] Jesse would post selfies of himself
at the high school
and leave repeated phone messages for Amy.
- [Jesse] Hey, so I just wanted to call to say hey
and ask if it'd be okay if we could talk sometime.
So yeah, that's all.
Hope that your new school year is going well.
God bless you and your students
and hope to hear from you soon.
You know how to contact me.
So, thanks so much.
- [Narrator] It all led Amy to seek
a temporary restraining order against Jesse
and then apply to make it permanent.
- She was able to articulate
that something was off and she was scared.
She knew that something bad was going to happen.
Mr. Alvarez in return filed a very lengthy response,
just attacking every single thing that she said
and coming up with one justification after another.
And Mr. Alvarez had given the court his word,
that he would no longer be contacting Amy,
her friends, whether directly or indirectly,
and the court took Mr. Alvarez's word.
- He bamboozled the judge ultimately
and the judge ended up denying
Amy's restraining order request.
- [Narrator] And within days, Jesse was right back at it,
showing up again at the high school.
- He came in kind of incognito
and he tried to mix in
like he was a Cathedral Catholic employee.
He even jumped in a picture with other students
from Cathedral Catholic.
- He never stopped.
He immediately went back into social media
and added just under 100 clubs
from Cathedral Catholic High School,
was trying to friend all of her friends, her colleagues,
was sending messages to them.
- [Narrator] At one point,
Jesse actually got a job at the school kitchen,
whose employees are hired by an outside provider.
- And I just went up to him
and I just started asking him questions.
"Why are you here?"
And he was very evasive at first.
And so, I just said to him,
I said, "Hey, do you know anybody on campus here?"
And he said to me, "No, I don't know anybody."
And I said, "Are you sure?"
And he said, "Well, maybe there's somebody I know."
And that's when I said,
"You know exactly who I'm talking about."
And I just said, "You're not welcome on this campus.
You need to leave."
- [Narrator] Things came to a head
when Jesse was in Peru on a Christmas family vacation.
- On December 21st, there's an engagement announcement
that goes out through the Facebook
for Cathedral High School,
and that sets him off.
And he goes instantly into searching
both Amy, the school, the campus.
He starts mapping the campus.
I'm talking hundreds of searches,
but he escalates up to Christmas Eve
where he is looking at hiring a hitman.
If I shoot somebody in the head, can I kill him?
He's trying to figure out how to get to Amy,
he's looking at routes
that our victim Mario might take to work.
- [Narrator] In the early morning hours of February 1st,
a car pulls into a parking spot
across the street from Mario Fierro's apartment.
- This is a man on a mission,
on a mission to kill.
[suspenseful music]
♪ Lean on me ♪
♪ When you're not strong ♪
♪ And I'll be your friend ♪
- [Reporter] Students and staff
at Cathedral Catholic High School
are grieving the loss
of a popular teacher and football coach.
- [Ron] Students were showing up crying at the scene.
The school was devastated.
They loved both Mario and Amy.
- Mario was, he was a great coach, mentor,
teacher, friend.
He's somebody you could always could count on
whenever you need help or whenever you're in doubt.
- [Narrator] The best lead for the homicide detectives
was what appeared to be the getaway car.
- There was a witness that was driving by
and that saw portions of what occurred.
- [Detective] She described a dark colored sedan,
that it was a dark colored Volkswagen hatchback.
- [Christopher] Couldn't tell who was driving.
I don't believe we could make out a license plate clearly.
- [Narrator] But the presumption was
that it was Jesse Alvarez who was behind the wheel
and that he would next target the high school.
- They began evacuations.
The had the school just completely surrounded.
And I personally believe
that the San Diego Police Department
prevented a mass shooting at that school.
- [Narrator] Another team was racing to find Alvarez
heading to his family's home in San Diego,
where they found a Volkswagen hatchback parked outside.
- We ended up doing a surround and call-out
where we had the uniform members of our gang unit
surround the home.
Jesse was the final subject to exit the home.
He was taken into custody.
- ...if you wanna take your cuffs off, okay?
- Oh, thank you.
- Ron Newquist and Christopher Leahy
are highly experienced detectives in their field
and they're brilliant at what they do.
- No karate, right? My kung fu is weak.
[laughs]
- He's this very soft 30-year-old,
comes across as kind of an oddball,
but he's very cooperative, overly cooperative.
- He's like, "I'm Back the Blue."
He was telling us how pro police he was.
- I was mentioning before, you know,
I've been fully behind the Back the Blue movement
this last year, and very conservative,
and I think it's appalling
how law enforcement has been demonized
and reputation's been hurt this last year.
That's horrible.
- And Ron and I are like, you know?
- Real quick, Jesse, I'm Ron Newquist.
I didn't introduce myself to you, but--
- But he never asked us why he is there.
He doesn't say, "Hey, am I here for a murder?
What are you guys doing?"
- So, thank you. - All right, so
like I said, I won't beat around the bush or anything else.
You're 30 years old.
You have no idea why we're here today?
- No, sir. - Okay.
Well, let me ask you this.
I work homicide. This is my boss here.
We both work several cases.
We went to an address today
over in North Park on Kansas Street
to a guy named Mario Fierro's house.
Do you know Mario Fierro?
- No, sir. - Okay.
Never heard that name before in your life?
- No, sir. - Okay.
What about, did you date a girl named Amy?
- We were friends. - Okay.
- But we did not date.
- Once we got on the topic of Amy
and asked him about Amy,
he developed what we call convenient amnesia.
- Okay, do you know Amy's last name?
- I don't remember, I don't recall.
- Okay.
Gembara, does that sound familiar to you?
- Sounds familiar, but I again don't recall.
- Okay.
Well, the reason I'm asking you about Amy
is her boyfriend is this guy, Mario Fierro,
who this morning, was shot and killed
outside of his apartment in North Park.
So, that's why.
So, Amy, we're looking at
dating relationships she had with people.
- I haven't talked to her in a very long time.
- Okay.
His body language is not defensive,
no crossing of the arms.
He thinks he's gonna outsmart us and talk his way out of this.
- All right, and maybe I have the wrong Jesse.
You go by Jesse, right?
- Yeah. - J-E-S-S-E?
- Yeah. - Okay.
Have you ever applied for any jobs
at Cathedral High School?
- I don't think so.
- We start to crack the foundation of what he's saying,
but very nice.
We also have court documents with your name on it,
with Jesse Alvarez where apparently she's tried
to get restraining orders against you.
Has there ever been a temporary
or a permanent restraining order against you?
- She once tried to
file an order against me
because I was trying to contact her about something,
but we went to court
and I very clearly explained, like I just did
to you right now, that we were just friends
and that she lied about me and it was dismissed.
- Okay. - So.
- Okay, yeah, and I did hear that as well.
Okay, so at least we established
we're talking about the right Amy Gembara
and that you're definitely the Jesse Alvarez she mentions.
- I think she is just a very kind of desperate,
insecure individual.
And I'll be completely frank with you.
She, yeah, just is kind of very aggressive emotionally
and she, I think,
has some kind of maybe histrionic mental disorder
or something like that.
- Are you aware that she was engaged to a guy named Mario?
- No. - Okay.
- [Narrator] By then, detectives at the scene
had reported back
that the getaway car was actually owned
by Jesse's brother.
- We find our victim's DNA on the steering wheel
and on the floor mat.
- Do you drive your brother's car?
- No, I drive my Toyota Prius.
- Okay.
This morning, did you drive your brother's car just by...
- I did not. - Okay.
So then I tried to bring his mom into it
'cause I know he is very close to his mom.
And I said, "Your mom's a great woman.
Don't put her in this position."
So when you were taken into custody today,
because we do believe that you were involved in it,
your mom was interviewed by another homicide detective.
She says, "You know what?
My son left at 6:30 this morning.
He left in my other son's car
without his permission, (bleep)'s car.
He returned an hour and a half later
and he claimed he'd been on a hiking trip.
Did you tell your mom this morning you went hiking,
or did you go on a hike today?
- I did exercise in the morning, but--
- Where at?
- I went to Pacific Beach.
- In your brother's car?
- No, I was in my car, so that's weird.
- Okay, your mom tells us this morning
that you purchased a gun or got a gun on January 15th
and had it painted white.
Is that true?
- Yes, that is true. - Okay.
- [Narrator] Detectives at the Alvarez home
found the white gun and a white rifle in the garage.
- He recently just got them Cerakoted
to appear as if they're storm trooper guns,
which kind of piqued our interest
because one of our witnesses
described seeing a white plastic looking thermometer.
- [Narrator] And his mother also told detectives
that her son had been practicing with the guns
at a nearby firing range.
- You practice with that gun?
Your mom says you did, that's why I'm asking.
I'm not trying to trick you.
- Right, yeah, no.
Yeah, I have gone to different--
- When's the last time you went and shot it?
- Let's see.
Like, a little over a week ago.
I practiced at a range.
- Are you the one that shot
Mario in the head with a white gun?
- No. - Okay.
But you're a smart guy.
You traveled all over the world.
What do you think should happen to somebody
that does something like that, that kills another person?
- Oh, that person should go to prison.
That's horrible.
- You know, and then I went to Amy,
I said, "She's gutted, you've destroyed her."
[somber music]
- I mean...
- And then he catches his breath
and he wants to spit it out, but he can't.
I know you're at war in your mind.
I've seen it before.
You're like, you're fighting yourself.
Do I just let it go and tell the truth or do I...
- Yeah, sorry, I'm just trying to gather my thoughts.
I...
I did, um...
I did...
I did, um...
I don't know where to begin.
- At the beginning.
It's simple.
- One of the ways I like to interview,
especially homicide suspects,
they try to get as far away from you as they can.
So I purposely position the table closer to them
and put my chair closer to them.
You obviously are a guy that cares about people.
What makes you drive there this morning?
- I did want to talk to him
and you know,
kind of,
just like we're having a man-to-man conversation,
just sort of say hey.
And then, I went up to him
and just started engaging him, introduced myself.
But as soon as I did,
he got really, really angry and aggressive.
- Instantly. - Instantly.
- He cracked right away and gives it up,
but he's already setting up a self-defense.
- Like he said, "Oh, you're Jesse?"
And he started saying, "You, enough."
Cussing at me and stuff.
And I said, "Hey, hey, calm down.
I just wanted to talk with you."
And then, he did actually try to grab me.
He aggressively attacked me first.
- [Ron] Yeah, there was a fight.
- I acted out of retaliation.
I did not initiate anything.
- And then, this never happens in homicide interviews,
but Detective Leahy says,
"Hey, do you mind reenacting this?"
- Do you mind standing up and using me as a--
- Yeah, I mean, I...
I don't know to what extent
I'll be able to accurately recall everything.
- He's lower than you, correct?
And can you put-- - That's 'cause he lunges
at you like this. - Yeah, exactly.
- Like this? - Yeah, like grabbing me.
- And then, how do you shoot him
with the head shots, the face shots?
How does that happen?
- Like, I just remember shooting downward.
- Okay, so he's lower. Is this accurate?
- Yeah, that seems accurate.
He's like, holding onto me.
- But you're body to body when this happens.
I mean, you're that close to each other.
This is close.
- Well, yeah. - Is it more like,
is my head the same distance
or is it closer?
Can you push?
You can push my head, I trust you.
- Honestly, I only recall just him
like in the position you're talking about
and me just firing downward as if like let go of me.
- Like this? - Uh-huh.
- Okay.
And then how many of those rounds were fired
when he was down below you?
- I don't recall exactly, but you know...
- We got five casings at the scene.
One unfired round, so that's six,
but five rounds appeared to have been fired.
- So what he described to us
was inconsistent with the crime scene evidence,
but instead, he chose to lie
because what he did wasn't perfect self-defense.
It was premeditated murder.
- So you shoot him and there's like, a pause.
I mean, you kind of walk to your car or what do you do?
Do you say anything to him?
Do you just...
- Honestly, I was just in shock
and I...
Yeah, I didn't even--
- Did you think you might've killed him though?
I'm just asking that, Jesse, like as you drove away
and just like, "Oh, my God,
I just killed the man," or "I might have?"
- Honestly, I didn't know.
It looked like he was just unconscious.
- [Ron] Okay. I am gonna tell you
that his wounds were catastrophic.
I mean, unfortunately, there was brain matter
all over the ground,
but that's not something you recall, the amount of blood?
It didn't go on your shoes or pants or you?
- No. - All this happens and
you don't call 911, correct?
- Correct. - You don't go to the 7/11
or get off at a gas station and use a payphone
or ask them to call 911, correct?
- No.
- Meanwhile, we're getting updated
on the progress of the search warrant
while this is going on.
You'll see me on the interview getting texts
and I'm looking down,
but they find all this damning evidence.
Jesse still has pictures of him and Amy on the shelves,
but he's like a Cathedral billboard
for the high school with hats and clothing.
I intend on going through your phone
because that's something we have to do.
Would you allow us to go through your phone?
- Oh, absolutely.
I don't have anything to hide.
[gun clicks and fires]
- [Narrator] But a search of Alvarez's internet activity
was another gold mine of evidence.
- The night before the murder, he went to YouTube
and watched an instructional video
on how to shoot a firearm without flinching.
[gun firing and clicking]
So, he watched that, went to bed,
and the next day, killed Mario.
- So, let me tell you this tonight,
and I appreciate you.
I mean, we had a normal conversation here.
This is not going to be,
it's gonna be kind of a long, drawn out...
Somebody died, it's a homicide.
There's nothing more serious, that we take more serious
than the loss of a human being.
- Oh, absolutely. - In law enforcement,
and what society deems the most serious crime.
With that being said,
tonight you are under arrest for murder.
- [Narrator] But his parents hired
one of the city's top defense lawyers
who helped to fashion a novel self-defense theory,
that Jesse Alvarez was on the autism spectrum.
- Obviously, this was a terrible tragedy and a crime.
But if you take Jesse's autism out of the picture,
I think Mario would still be alive today.
[suspenseful music]
- Good morning, we're heading out to San Diego
for opening statements in the case against Jesse Alvarez,
the jilted lover accused of killing his rival,
a beloved high school teacher, Mario Fierro.
- [Narrator] Alvarez's lawyer said he needed a cane
after being injured during fights with other inmates.
- When I first saw him at court,
he kind of looked like the shell of a person.
I was there every day.
I felt like I had a right to know
what was happening, what was being said.
- It's the Jesse Alvarez show.
It always has been.
Everything's about him.
His ego, his bruised ego,
his sense of needing to have power and control.
So I wanted the jury to see
that this was a man on a mission,
on a mission to kill.
Evidence shows that he waited almost an hour
for Mr. Fierro to walk out of his home,
and then he murdered him.
He was just getting ready to go to work.
He was unarmed.
He had no idea that the defendant plotted
a surprise attack.
- [Narrator] For its opening, the defense told the jury
that a new medical diagnosis
would explain why Jesse felt he had to shoot Mario.
- You're going to hear an evidence in his case
that Mr. Alvarez suffers from autism spectrum disorder.
In other words, he's autistic,
and Mr. Alvarez falls in the category
of a high functioning autistic person.
- So, it wasn't diagnosed until this case.
I know that there's some people that think
and misinterpreted it as us using autism
as an excuse to get a murderer off,
and that's not what we were doing.
- Social situations are a very hard part
of Mr. Alvarez's life,
and he doesn't always look at things
the way someone who does not suffer from autism
looks at life, looks at relationships.
Mr. Alvarez is gonna tell you at that point,
Mr. Fierro came toward him,
assaulting him, hitting him.
Mr. Alvarez will tell you
that he finally took the gun out
and pointed its head at Mr. Fierro's body
and said, "Stop, just stop,"
as he kept backing up,
that Mr. Alvarez unfortunately then shot five more times.
- Someone in his situation with that disability
was using reasonable force
based on what he believed was happening.
- It was so insulting
to use that as a defense.
It's so insulting to the autism community.
- [Narrator] The prosecution began its case with Amy,
who described Jesse's stalking.
- I saw that the defendant attempted to
get into my apartment.
I knew that
I didn't feel safe because
I told him no.
[tense music]
- [Narrator] To show premeditation,
the prosecution called a trainer from the firing range,
Colin Vase.
- He had asked me where
is the best place to shoot someone to kill them.
I corrected him and basically told him
that we do not shoot to kill someone,
we train to stop a threat.
But then, he asked me a follow-up question.
He said, "Well, what about the back of the head?"
- Is it fair to say that they jumped out at you
'cause that's not a common question
that you get in these classes?
- It is not common.
[suspenseful music]
- [Narrator] The prosecution closed out its case
with the video of Alvarez confessing to the shooting.
- And me just firing downward, as if like,
"Let go of me."
- Like this? - Uh-huh.
- Okay.
- [Narrator] And with Detective Christopher Leahy
on the stand,
the prosecution played the audio of the shots fired.
[gunshots firing] [indistinct shouting]
- What was most notable to me was
the passage in time, the prolonged passage of time
between the first gunshot
to the second gunshot.
- The audio was important
because you could hear
the cadence of those shots.
It's so eerie.
- [Narrator] So now, the stage was set
for Jesse Alvarez to take the stand
and tell the jury why he believed
he had to shoot Mario Fierro.
[suspenseful music]
- We knew that Jesse was gonna testify from the beginning
and that he was gonna explain what exactly happened.
- My autism disability, that I say in retrospect,
'cause I did not know at that time,
I couldn't take the hint. [laughs]
I just, to me, it just went over my head and--
- That's correct.
- So, I think that
part of my emotional reaction
was that, you know, I,
I felt kind of just
kind of robbed, I guess, like I just,
just all of a sudden, I was replaced so quickly.
And so, I started having these,
yeah, bad fantasies of just like,
wishing that he was gone, or dead, or not there anymore.
- [Narrator] Alvarez testified
that as he arrived in the early morning hours
outside Mario's apartment,
God spoke to him.
- I parked and then I started praying
and just started asking the Lord God
for some wisdom, guidance, and discernment
as to how to most peaceably and amicably
talk with Mr. Fierro
and address the concerns that we had, that I had.
- Well, I said, "Good morning, Mario. How are you?
My name is Jesse Alvarez and..."
And then,
yeah, he began to cut me off
and he looked directly at me
and he said to me, "You (bleep).
I'm gonna (bleep) kill you, (bleep)."
- The hardest parts
were definitely hearing Jesse Alvarez testify.
It was hard for my dad.
He was not happy with the lies that Jesse was telling,
that Mario was like attacking him.
- He tried to grab onto my neck as if to strangle me.
I again tried to push him away and said,
"Please stop, please stop," but he wouldn't.
And so, I had my arm up
just trying to block him from his advances
and I pulled out my firearm
and I showed it to him to say, "Stop, stop."
And I thought when he would see the firearm,
he would stop.
But instead, he tried to seize the firearm from my hand,
and we were wrestling over it,
and he started to point it towards my direction
and then he got his fingers around the trigger
and he pulled it and the gun discharged.
I shot him in the back and he stopped,
and I put my gun down.
He went to his knees
and I just, I stopped.
And then, he got up from his knees
and looked at me again
and again, he said, "I'm gonna (bleep) kill you."
And he rushed me again
and I just aimed downward.
I shot, we had a back and forth,
and he got lower
and lower to the point of stopping
and I was just in such trauma and shock of what happened
that I just,
I didn't know what to do and I just left,
and I got in my car and I drove away.
[tense music]
- [Judge] All right, cross-examination.
- Yes, your honor.
Mr. Alvarez, you told us yesterday
that when you saw this photograph,
you went through a series of emotions, correct?
- [Jesse] Yes.
- I wanted to put the picture up
of Amy and Mario's engagement post
because that was the trigger.
You testified yesterday that you were wishing
after you saw this photograph
that Mr. Fierro was gone, or dead,
or not here anymore, correct?
- I believe, yes. That is what I said yesterday.
- [Ramona] Now, Ms. Gembara made it crystal clear to you
that she wanted nothing to do with you, right?
- She did communicate that.
- You researched,
"the best place to shoot someone in the head
to kill them," correct?
- Again, yes,
a question I already answered for.
A question I already knew the answer for.
- [Ramona] You did shoot Mr. Fierro
in the back of the head, correct?
- That's what the evidence shows.
- Did you shoot Mr. Fierro in the back of the head,
yes or no?
- That's what the evidence shows.
I don't independently remember that.
- [Ramona] You didn't just shoot him once
in the back of the head, Mr. Alvarez,
you shot him twice in the back of the head, correct?
- According to the evidence stated, then yes.
- I just want to be very clear,
you were the one who killed Mr. Fierro, right?
- Yes, I've testified to that.
- [Ramona] You put six bullets in his body, correct?
- Yes, I understand that.
- [Ramona] You put two in his forehead, right?
- Yes.
- [Ramona] And you put two in the back of his head, right?
- Yes.
- [Ramona] And you also shot him in the back, right?
- Right.
- [Ramona] Now you even researched,
"how to get away with killing someone,"
including looking up
the California self-defense laws, right?
- Right.
- [Ramona] Now, Mr. Alvarez, will you remind us,
what defense are you going with in this case?
- Of course, self-defense.
- [Ramona] And you're testifying to us twice now
that that was the most traumatic day of your life, correct?
- Yes, ma'am.
As I've described, I almost died
and my family were violently arrested by the police.
- He brutally executed a man
simply because that man was in love with his ex-girlfriend.
But it was the worst day of Jesse Alvarez's life.
No further questions.
[intense music]
[pensive music]
- [Narrator] The final witness for the defense
was the clinical psychologist they hired to test Alvarez.
- Were you able to come to a conclusion
regarding Mr. Alvarez suffering
from a particular mental disorder?
- Yes, I diagnosed him with autism spectrum disorder
and I also diagnosed him with obsessive compulsive disorder.
- The things that I wanted to point out,
that Mr. Alvarez can still act with intention.
- [Ramona] A person with autism can purchase a gun,
correct? - Correct.
- [Ramona] They could go to court
and be able to testify at a hearing, correct?
- Correct.
- [Ramona] In other words, people with autism,
they can still have goal-oriented behavior, correct?
- Absolutely.
- [Ramona] I have no further questions.
[tense music]
- This is Mario Fierro
and he's no longer with us.
In December of 2020,
he proposed to Ms. Gembara.
On December 21st of 2020,
the defendant, Ms. Gembara's possessive and obsessive
and jealous ex-boyfriend saw that announcement.
Mr. Fierro was already dead by that time
because when the defendant saw that,
he had methodically plotted out his execution,
an execution that he ended up doing
on February 1st of 2021.
This is not a self-defense case.
And frankly, it's insulting.
It's insulting.
The defense is gonna come up here
because the defendant is claiming
that this was self-defense,
and that he's gonna tell you
that it has to do with his diagnosis,
and that's just insulting as well,
because he knew exactly what he was doing.
He had a goal, and he obtained that goal,
and that goal was to murder Mr. Fierro.
Thank you.
- [Judge] All right, thank you, Ms. McCarthy.
- Good morning.
Obviously,
Jesse could not get over Amy,
maybe more than any of us have ever seen.
- [Narrator] Defense lawyer Peter Blair told the jury
Alvarez's autism diagnosis was the key factor
in the self-defense argument.
- You gotta see how Jesse just doesn't get it at all
when it comes to dealing with other humans.
And it's always been a problem, he's a smart person.
We know people that suffer from autism
are not dangerous people,
and that's not what we were trying to imply whatsoever.
In fact, it's just the opposite.
It was that there were certain things
that Jesse just didn't get
that put him in a terrible situation.
And his behavior, I think, is reflected
by those symptoms.
Jesse Alvarez was defending himself
and is not a murderer,
and I ask that you vote that way, thank you.
[tense music]
- And happening right now, jury deliberations continuing
in the murder trial against Jesse Alvarez.
- [Narrator] The jury was out for a Friday afternoon,
then a weekend,
and then most of Monday.
- I was thinking, holy (bleep),
we might have actually won this thing.
- All right, the people of State of California
versus Jesse Milton Alvarez.
Verdict count one.
"We, the jury, in the above entitled cause,
find the defendant...
- [Jesse] Hey, Amy, it's Jesse. How's it going?
- [Judge] ...Jesse Milton Alvarez...
- [Jesse] If you could please call or--
[gunshots firing] [indistinct shouting]
- ...guilty of the crime of murder in the first degree.
- He seemed like he didn't want people to be looking at him.
I don't hold anger for him.
I don't even know if I pity him.
I guess I'm kind of disgusted by him.
[tense music]
- [Narrator] Jesse Alvarez was brought into court
in a wheelchair
after banging his head against the floor
in what prosecutors said was another apparent attempt
to delay the sentencing.
- He found a host of ways
to manage continuance
after another continuance, after another continuance,
which is just,
again, it's about him.
Your Honor, Ms. Amy Gembara is here present virtually
and she would like to make a cast.
- Mario Fierro was my beloved fiance
who was maliciously murdered
by Jesse Alvarez.
One moment, Mario and I were planning our wedding.
Then the next moment,
our loved ones were planning his funeral.
- The level of disrespect that he gave them,
it's not surprising,
but he just kept his head down the entire time.
He couldn't even look at them.
- Though I am here four years
after Mario's life was taken,
I am ready to leave behind
the label of victim
and trade it to survivor.
I stand for those whose voices cannot be heard.
I stand for women who have experienced domestic violence
not here today,
who've had to deal with men
who cannot take no for an answer.
- [Narrator] His conviction carried a mandatory sentence
of life without parole
or the death penalty.
- We didn't want to pursue
the death penalty or anything like that.
We wanted life without parole.
"An eye for an eye
makes the whole world blind," as Gandhi said.
- He's had his face down on a table now for 50 minutes.
It's the court's opinion
that everything we've watched in court since the verdict
has been theatrics,
and he's a cold-hearted killer.
This is as cold-hearted as you can get.
- So it was life without parole
with the judge adding 25 years more
for the charge of lying in wait.
- [Ramona] Nothing will bring Mario back,
but there is, there is a sense of justice
that he's going to spend the rest of his life behind bars
and he's never going to be able
to stalk Amy again,
hurt Amy again,
or hurt anybody that she loves.