Closing arguments are scheduled Monday in the murder trial of a Desert Hot Springs resident charged in the shooting death of his roommate.
Brian Keith Hernandez, 49, is charged with murder, assault with a gun and making criminal threats in the Feb. 28, 2017, shooting of 49-year-old Steven Nelson, who was shot in the back of the head at the Estancia Apartments at 13355 Verbena Drive. Nelson died the following day at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs.
After Nelson moved in a few months prior to the shooting, Hernandez demanded that Nelson move out, along with his girlfriend, who stayed at the apartment on occasion. Hernandez testified that the girlfriend’s drug use prompted him to insist they move out.
Prosecutors allege that when the couple asked for a few extra days, Hernandez allegedly told them, “You are gonna get out tomorrow, I don’t give a (expletive). No, if you don’t get out, it’s gonna go down. It’s gonna go down tomorrow night if you don’t get out of here.”
Nelson and Hernandez got into an argument just before 10 p.m. in the apartment’s kitchen, Deputy District Attorney Anthony Orlando said, and Nelson’s girlfriend, who was in a nearby bedroom, heard the defendant say, “So you want to play games?”
Nelson allegedly responded by saying, “Nah man. I’m not playing any games. What are you talking about? There is no games being played.”
The girlfriend later heard a gunshot, then ran out to find Nelson bleeding on the floor, according to the prosecution.
Hernandez then pointed the gun at her and asked her “You want to be next?” according to Orlando.
Nelson had allegedly tried in vain to grab a knife in his confrontation with Hernandez, who said he shot Nelson out of “self-preservation. I was scared. I think he would have killed me. I really think he would have stabbed me to death.”
Hernandez said he felt justified in shooting Nelson, but regretted having to do it.
“I just wish the outcome was different,” he testified. “I just wish he would have left.”
Hernandez denied threatening or pointing the gun at Nelson’s girlfriend, saying he only told her to leave the apartment.
She then ran from the apartment, pounding on neighbors’ doors throughout the complex, leading one of the residents to call the police, the prosecutor said.
A Desert Hot Springs police officer saw Hernandez pacing back and forth outside the apartment complex. Jurors heard a recording from the officer’s body camera recording device, which captured Hernandez telling the officer “Just check me and cuff me, I shot the guy upstairs.” Police found an unloaded .38-caliber revolver on the apartment’s kitchen table.
Hernandez is being held in lieu of $1 million bail.
>> Want to read more stories like this? Get our Free Daily Newsletters Here!