DA HESTRIN ANNOUNCES GRAND JURY FINDING IN CORONA COSTCO CASE

RIVERSIDE – Today, Sept. 25, 2019, District Attorney Mike Hestrin announced that a Riverside County criminal grand jury has returned a “no bill” in the matter of Salvador Sanchez.

A “no bill” means the grand jury did not find that the evidence in the matter warrants criminal prosecution.

On June 14, 2019, a shooting occurred inside a Costco at 480 N. McKinley St., in the city of Corona that resulted in the death of Kenneth French and serious injuries to Russell and Paola French, Kenneth’s parents. Sanchez, an off-duty officer with the Los Angeles Police Department, was determined to have shot all three.

A thorough investigation into the shooting was done by the Corona Police Department and presented to the DA’s Office for review. The DA’s Bureau of Investigation conducted follow-up investigation leading to the case being presented to the criminal grand jury in early September.

Presenting a case to a criminal grand jury is an option available to the DA’s Office and can be utilized for a variety of reasons including having members of the community examine the evidence in a case as well as compelling testimony from material witnesses who may have otherwise refused to be interviewed by law enforcement officials.

In this matter, the grand jury heard testimony and deliberated over the course of two weeks, returning the “no bill” the afternoon of Sept. 24.

A criminal grand jury is empaneled by a Riverside County Superior Court judge with 19 members of the community drawn at random from the general jury pool to hear a specific criminal case. Once that case is over, that specific criminal grand jury is disbanded.