PHOENIX – A man with Arizona ties has been convicted in California for his role in multiple murders.

In a statement, officials with the District Attorney’s Office in California’s Orange County announced that 33-year-old Raul Gastellum Flores of Phoenix was convicted by a jury on April 29 of four counts of first-degree murder, four “special circumstances of murder during the commission of a robbery,” and four “special circumstances of multiple murders.”

According to the website for the law offices of Cron, Israels & Stark in Los Angeles, special circumstances murder involves aggravating factors that escalate the severity of the come to more severe penalties.

Flores was accused of killing four men in a failed attempt to take over a drug business. The four were identified as Fernando Meza, Edgar Berrelleza, Antonio Medina, and Joel Berrelleza, Edgar’s brother.

Officials say of the four victims, Meza, Medina, and Berrelleza were found inside a burnt SUV in the city of Orange on the afternoon of Nov. 9, 2015. The men were shot multiple times, and Meza was also found to have been stabbed several times.

Berrelleza’s brother, meanwhile, was kidnapped at an apartment in Orange before his death.

“Flores and another accomplice forced Joel Berrelleza into his Pontiac, where he was shot three times as they drove and recorded his dying breaths on a cell phone,” read a portion of the DA’s statement. “[Joel Berrelleza’s] body was left inside his vehicle in Fontana for six days until a passerby called police to report a man had been sleeping inside the vehicle for several days.”

Prosecutors say Flores was recruited by a man named Rosario Adan Roman-Lopez to help carry out the murders, and that Flores traveled from Phoenix to Orange County “with several handguns and Ak-47s to steal tens of thousands of dollars from the Berrelleza brothers, and to murder them if they refused to pay.” Roman-Lopez is believed to have been murdered in Mexico in retribution for the murders.

“[Flores] faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is scheduled to be sentenced July 19, 2024,” read a portion of the statement.

(This story was reported on from Phoenix.)

A 2-year-old boy was killed while playing in a bounce house over the weekend in Arizona, authorities said.

Bodhi Naaf was playing with other children on Saturday in Casa Grande when a gust of wind picked up the bounce house and blew it away, local NBC affiliate KPNX reported.

After the inflatable landed in a neighboring lot, two children were rushed to a nearby hospital, according to local CBS affiliate KPHO. Bodhi died at the hospital, while the other child suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Sources told KPHO the second child broke her arm.

“This appears to have been a tragic accident,” the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office told local Fox affiliate KSAZ. “We would like to extend our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to the grieving family.”

Winds were consistently between 10 and 15 mph in Casa Grande on Saturday, according to weather records. Gusts reached up to 25 mph, and there was a 23-mph gust right before 5 p.m., when police said the accident occurred.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, “maximum wind speed should be no more than 15 to 25 mph if you are using a bounce house.” No wind gusts over 25 mph were recorded in Casa Grande after 12:15 a.m. on Saturday.

A GoFundMe has been created for Bodhi’s parents, Karl and Cristy. Karl Naaf is a Phoenix firefighter, and his union identified him in an Instagram post.

“Adding to their challenges, Cristy is due to give birth to their second child on May 31, 2024,” the GoFundMe reads. “Amidst their sorrow, they face the daunting task of preparing for the arrival of their newborn.”

The GoFundMe had already surpassed its $100,000 goal as of Tuesday afternoon.

Prosecutors have decided against retrying an Arizona rancher accused of fatally shooting a Mexican national who crossed onto his property near the southern border after his murder trial ended with a hung jury last week.

The Santa Cruz County Attorney’s Office decided to drop the highly politicized case against 75-year-old George Alan Kelly after jurors were unable to come to a consensus on a verdict following more than 48 hours of deliberation.

Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Thomas Fink declared a mistrial last Monday, which left the decision of whether to retry Kelly for the death of Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea, 48, up to the prosecutors.

“Because of the unique circumstances and challenges surrounding this case, the Santa Cruz County Attorney’s Office has decided not to seek a retrial,” Deputy County Attorney Kimberly Hunley told Fink Monday.

The judge agreed to dismiss the case and will set a hearing date to see if the dismissal will be without prejudice — which would make it so that the charges wouldn’t be able to be brought back to court.

Kelly’s lawyer Brenna Larkin plans to file a request for the case to be dismissed without prejudice.

In the meantime, the rancher said he felt “relief” when interviewed by a local reporter from KGUN as he left the courthouse.

“The nightmare’s over,” Kelly said.

He offered his “sincere sympathy” to Cuen-Buitimea’s family outside the courthouse where protesters had gathered to demand a retrial so that the victim could get justice.

“Gabriel was a human being,” one of the protesters had written across a sign.

Kelly, whose trial lasted nearly a month, had been charged with second-degree murder for the Jan. 30, 2023 shooting outside Nogales, Arizona.

His victim, Cuen-Buitimea, lived just south of the US-Mexican border in Nogales, Mexico. He was crossing Kelly’s Arizona cattle ranch with a group of other men when the elderly rancher fired nine shots from an AK-47 rifle toward them from about 100 yards away, according to prosecutors.

Kelly claimed the shots were only meant to be a warning and that he didn’t aim directly at anyone, but one of the bullets struck Cuen-Buitimea, killing him.

The case ignited debate across the country with the influx of migrants from the south coming into the US as Republicans have slammed President Biden for his handling of the border crisis as he is up for reelection.

GoFundMe campaigns created to support Kelly — who was initially held on $1 million bond — were forcibly shut down for violating the site’s policies on raising funds to benefit people accused of violent crimes. 

With Post wires