News & Columns > G.T. Houts > Carbonell Sentenced for Killing Co-worker with Machete

Carbonell Sentenced for Killing Co-worker with Machete

Palmdale Man Gets 26 Years to Life

By G.T. Houts
Tuesday, November 3, 2009

San Bernardino, CA - Orlando Carbonell, 46, will serve 26 years to life after being found guilty a second time for killing his co-worker with a machete and leaving his body at Silverwood Lake.

A memorial on a fence overlooking Silverwood Lake has been erected by the family of the late Edward Manuel Marrujo, 51, who was killed in July 2004. (Photo by G. T. Houts.)

A jury deliberated less than 90 minutes last Friday before finding Carbonell guilty of the slaying of 51-year-old Edmund Marrujo. Deliberations came on the 9th day of the trial that saw Carbonell testify in his own defense.

Carbonell was sentenced yesterday, November 2, to the state prison term on a count of murder. The same jury also ruled a special allegation count was appropriate because Carbonell used the machete to kill the man who worked with him at the V.A. Greater Los Angeles Health Care System facility.

During the trial, Deputy District Attorney Karen Khim presented a case centering on allegations Carbonell was involved in a scheme to sell over $95,000 in stolen medical equipment from a hospital in West Los Angeles. Khim's witnesses testified that Marrujo was going to confront Carbonell about the equipment when he was murdered.

Attorney Richard Farquhar's defense strategy alleged another employee at the medical center was responsible for the death and that Marrujo was involved in the equipment scheme.

The mutilated body of Marrujo was discovered July 18, 2004 by an employee of the Crestline-Lake Arrowhead Water Agency on an access road at Silverwood Lake.

PREVIOUS TRIAL

On May 16, 2007, Carbonell was also found guilty of the crime. However, a mistrial was declared when Judge Brian McCarville ruled the suspect's Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial had been violated.

The ruling was based on the fact the unidentified jury forewoman did not disclose during jury selection that her cousin had been murdered a decade or so earlier.