Man Convicted of Killing, Dismembering Teenager

MURRIETA - A young man who gunned down a 17-year-old Hemet boy and then dismembered and torched his remains was convicted today of first-degree murder.

A Murrieta jury deliberated one day before finding Jose Manuel Campos, 19, guilty of the murder count as well as an allegation that a firearm was used in the Nov. 15, 2009, death of Adrian Rios.

The defendant is facing 50 years to life in prison when he's sentenced by Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mark Petersen on Dec. 16.

Campos testified in his own defense earlier this week, adamantly denying that he killed Rios. Testimony concluded Wednesday morning, after which the prosecution and defense submitted closing statements to the jury.

On the day of the murder, Campos, Rios, the defendant's girlfriend, Felicia Sharp, and another friend, Ivan Andres Ruiz, gathered at Campos' family home at 1440 Bluejay Way to watch a football game, according to Deputy District Attorney Burke Strunsky.

The teenagers drank beer and did freestyle rapping throughout the afternoon in Campos' bedroom. However, around nightfall, a fistfight erupted between Rios and Ruiz, during which the latter was punched in the nose, according to the prosecution.

Ruiz later told authorities that he left the room to wash blood from his face and overheard Campos and Rios arguing. According to the witness, Rios told the defendant that he wanted out of the ''Nemesis'' clique which Campos founded.

''Defendant told Adrian that there 'was only one way out,' intimating that Adrian would remain a member of Nemesis or defendant would kill him,'' according to the prosecution's trial brief.

Ruiz said he heard Rios ''taunting'' Campos, who shot the victim in the head with a .22 caliber rifle, according to Strunsky.

Campos and Ruiz carried the body to the back yard and dumped it in a hole they dug adjacent to a fire pit, then set it ablaze, according to trial testimony.

''After several hours in which defendant and Felicia Sharp stoked the fire and burned all the blood-saturated items, defendant determined that the body would not completely burn,'' according to the brief.

Campos covered up some charred remains at the location, and the following day took his stepfather's Chevrolet Tahoe and transported the larger, partially burned body parts to Canyon Lake. The defendant chopped up the pieces and threw them into the water, then set the Tahoe on fire, according to Strunsky.

Hemet police investigators searched the Bluejay Way residence shortly after Rios' mother reported him missing. They recovered hands, legs, ribs, a femur, toes and a foot. A sheriff's dive team also found human remains, including a hip bone and skull, on the bottom of Canyon Lake, according to the prosecution.

DNA analysis confirmed the remains were those of Adrian Rios.

Campos and Sharp fled to Mexico but were located less than three months later and extradited back to the U.S.

Ruiz admitted assisting in the disposal of the remains and pleaded guilty in September 2010 to being an accessory to murder. He was sentenced to 180 days in county jail and three years probation.

Sharp was also convicted of being an accessory and sentenced to six months in juvenile hall.

Campos blamed the killing on Ruiz.