A man diagnosed with schizophrenia who was ruled by a judge to be sane when he shot two teenagers to death from behind inside a Corona movie theater in 2021 was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Monday, Feb. 26.
Superior Court Judge Timothy J. Hollenhorst imposed the term on Joseph Jimenez Jr., 23, as family members and friends of victims Rylee Goodrich, 18, and Anthony Barajas, 19, watched from the gallery after making victim impact statements.
Officially, Jimenez was sentenced also to another 100 years to life — 25 to life for each murder, and 25 to life for using a firearm in the commission of a felony.
District Attorney Mike Hestrin did not seek the death penalty.
The teens were together on July 26, 2021, at the Regal Edwards cinema at the Crossings at Corona as the credits rolled on the last showing that night of “The Forever Purge.” Goodrich died at the scene and Barajas died July 31 after donating organs.
Goodrich graduated from Corona High. Barajas was a graduate of Mater Dei High in Santa Ana and had hundreds of thousands of followers on his TikTok account.
Jimenez testified in his defense and said he graduated from Santiago High in Corona and was off of his medication that day when he heard voices from “Abigail” and an unidentified, equally non-existent companion saying he was in danger from the teens, as they sat several rows in front of Jimenez and three of his friends.
The six people were the only customers in the theater.
“The voices said my friends and family were going to be killed,” Jimenez said in a jailhouse interview with a Southern California News Group reporter in 2021.
Jimenez said then that he had been haunted by the voices for about eight months. They sometimes threatened to steal his car and television, he said. Jimenez said he was diagnosed with schizophrenia about eight months before the shooting and had been taking medication. But he ran out, Jimenez said, and did not get more pills.
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