Man Arrested in Lake Forest Sentenced for Murder

By City News Service

An Anaheim man who gunned down his estranged wife on her lunch break from her preschool teaching job in the Turtle Rock neighborhood of Irvine was sentenced today to 50 years to life behind bars.

As Orange County Superior Court Judge W. Michael Hayes handed down John Rand Agosta's punishment, he told the 37-year-old defendant that taking the life of Alejandra Hernandez on June 16, 2011, was "totally useless, unnecessary and incomprehensible."

Agosta was arrested in Lake Forest after a friend's wife, unknowing what he had just done, took him to their apartment after his car wouldn't start at the murder scene. 

Agosta told the judge on  Friday, "For the record, I'd just like to say please read Matthew 6:14-15 and Psalm 51, 1-19."

The New Testament verses say, "For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins."

Psalm 51 is about the prophet Nathan visiting David after he committed adultery with Bathsheba.

The 28-year-old victim's mother said her daughter "was a special gift sent from God to cherish and to love."

Maria Ortiz added, "One of the hardest things for me is knowing the pain and fear that Alejandra must have suffered at the time of the murder; the horror and betrayal she must have felt when she realized someone she knew and feared was actually killing her; the helplessness of knowing she was going to die. Alejandra did not deserve this. It is unbearable to grasp."

To her son-in-law, Ortiz said, "John, we welcomed you and your sons into our family and into our homes, but because of your selfish, manipulative and evil ways you not only took away a beautiful and amazing part of our family, but you also robbed your own children of their happiness forever."

Veronica DeLeon asked the judge to impose the maximum punishment on her sister's killer.

"I ask you, I beg you, to please sentence this selfish coward to the maximum sentence the law allows," DeLeon said. "The defendant stated in emails shown in the trial that he would laugh if Alejandra died. Well, now it's our turn to laugh and to smile knowing that justice and, as Alejandra would say, peace, has finally been served."

Another sister, Erica DeLeon, said she had a falling out with her sibling over Agosta. When they were on a road trip together without her brother- in-law, he sent angry text messages to Hernandez, including one that said he wished the sisters would get into a fatal crash, she said.

After her sister's marriage, the two were reunited at a Christmas gathering, Erica DeLeon said. She recalled that in January 2011, when her sister told her she was going to end her marriage to Agosta, that she "high- fived" her best friend when her sibling left the room.

Deputy District Attorney Steve McGreevy told jurors that Agosta had not handled the break-up well, posting angry statements on Facebook and "repeatedly" contacting his estranged wife before following her to her usual lunch spot in the 18000 block of Via Siena.

Agosta got out of his white Mustang and walked to Hernandez's car. A neighborhood resident told investigators he heard a woman say, "Get away from me," before shots were fired and he saw the victim on the ground, McGreevy said.

The couple had been married for about two years, but separated six months before the shooting.

"She didn't want anything more to do with him," McGreevy said.

Hernandez sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, an arm and a hand, McGreevy said.

Agosta was unable to start his car after the shooting and wound up calling a friend, who was unaware of what happened, McGreevy said. The friend's wife picked Agosta up and brought him back to their Lake Forest apartment, where police later arrested him, the prosecutor said.