POMONA : Survivalist Found Guilty of Killing Chicano Activist
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A self-styled survivalist and paint-gun warrior was found guilty Friday in Pomona Superior Court of second-degree murder in the Jan. 2, 1986, shooting death of a well-known Chicano activist.
William Barnes, 35, was convicted in the death of Carlos Vazquez, 25, who was gunned down outside his El Monte home. Barnes, who had dated Vazquez’s wife, Dolores, before the marriage, confessed the slaying four years later to his cousin, who testified during the trial.
Barnes left the Los Angeles area after Vazquez’s death. Before he was extradited, he was convicted and sentenced to a 25-year-to-life term for the 1990 murder of a North Carolina man in a similar, frustrated romantic triangle. He could get 20 years to life in prison for the California murder when he is sentenced on Sept. 9.
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