On Sept. 22, 2020, 21-year-old El Camino College engineering student Juan Hernandez went missing from his home on Adams Blvd. Almost two months later, Hernadez’ body was found in the Mojave Desert on Nov. 15, 2020.

Los Angeles County Assistant District Attorney Habib Balian presented the prosecution’s case concerning what happened to Hernandez during a preliminary hearing in the case of the People of California vs. Ethan Kedar Astaphan, held from Monday, Feb. 28 to Wednesday, March 2, 2022, at Clara Shortridge Foltz Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. Judge Michael E. Pastor presided over the hearing in Department 41.

Daniel Romero testified that he and Hernandez both worked at the V.I.P Collective dispensary as “budtenders,” responsible for taking cash payments from customers in exchange for marijuana products. Romero said that the defendant Astaphan was their supervisor.

Balian showed Romero two photos taken after 11 p.m. on Sept. 22 that were recovered from the dispensary’s digital video recorder (DVR). In the first photo, Romero identified Hernandez and Astaphan.

Romero said that Astaphan was lying on top of Hernandez, appearing to have his full weight on Hernandez’ back and legs, with his right arm wrapped around Hernandez’ neck. Standing to the left of Astaphan and Hernandez is a man that Romero could not identify.

Sonita Heng, 22, identified the third man in the photo as Weijia Peng, her boyfriend and owner of the V.I.P. Collective.

Heng testified that Peng sold cocaine and ketamine outside of the marijuana business conducted in the dispensary. She also testified that Peng kept a vial of Ketamine in a blue box in the kitchen cupboard and that she knew it to be a tranquilizer.

About a month before Hernandez’ disappearance, Heng testified that Peng began to complain that his money from the dispensary was “coming up short,” by about $10,000 to $20,000. Heng said Peng also shared his suspicions with Astaphan.

On the night of Sept. 22, 2020, Heng testified that Astaphan came to their apartment in Alhambra and was talking in the living room to Peng. “I heard James say he’s going to get rid of Juan,” Heng said. She also said that she saw Peng holding the blue box containing ketamine.

“Did you ever hear James use the term kill Juan?” Balian asked Heng.

“No,” Heng said. “I only heard James saying ‘we need to get rid of him.’”

Heng said the three of them left the apartment and got into Astaphan’s black Mercedes SUV. When they got to V.I.P. Collective, Peng told Heng to park in the alley behind the shop. Peng and Astpahan went inside at approximately 11 p.m. on the night of Sept. 22, 2020.

Heng said that Peng told her to look out for anyone approaching the back of the shop as their vehicle was parked directly behind the dispensary.

Heng testified she heard a sound behind her and saw Peng and Astaphan dragging Hernandez out of the shop. Heng said, “His legs, his butt and his lower back,” were on the ground. Hernandez’ hands were zip-tied in front of him. Heng said that they lifted Hernandez into the back seat in a “sitting position.”

“Was Juan making any noises at all?” Balian asked Heng on the witness stand.

“No,” Heng said as she appeared crying.

Heng then testified that Peng told her to drive toward Las Vegas. On the way, she said Astaphan cracked Hernandez’ phone and threw it out the window.

At some point, Heng said Peng handed Astaphan the vial that she identified as ketamine and a syringe. She further testified that Peng asked Astaphan where he had injected him, and Astaphan said his eyeball.

Heng estimated that they drove for about two hours before Peng told her to exit the freeway. The road, Heng said, was “rocky and bumpy” making it hard for her to drive. There were no lights. No buildings. “It was pitch dark,” Heng said.

Heng said that this was when Peng and Astaphan took Hernandez from the car and disappeared from view. Hernandez was not in sight as Peng and Astapahan later returned to the vehicle.

Heng said the three of them drove back to the dispensary, cleaned the area where Hernandez had allegedly been choked, removed Hernandez’ glasses and drove Hernandez’ car away from the shop.

For this section of testimony, Balian played a video clip showcasing a woman whom Heng identified as herself and two men who she identified as both Astaphan and Peng, cleaning the area of the shop where earlier photos showed Astaphan on top of Hernandez.

Heng said that the day after the killing she, Peng and Astaphan drove to Bolsa Chica beach, lit a bonfire and burned Hernandez’ backpack, glasses, wallet and the paper towels used to clean up the scene.

Daniel Jaramillo, Los Angeles County Police Department (LAPD) detective in the Robbery-Homicide Division, Robbery Special Section testified that the LAPD found Hernandez’s car parked in the 6400 block of Figueroa at 2:35 a.m. on Sept. 24.

Jennifer Hammer, an LAPD detective in the Robbery-Homicide Division, testified that she submitted more than 60 warrants for the case, including one for V.I.P. Collective where she said the LAPD recovered the DVR on Sept. 29, 2020.

Hammer said that when she examined the DVR, all the images on the recorder before 6:30 a.m. on Sept. 23 were gone. Only the video of Peng, Heng and Astaphan cleaning the shop floor remained.

Hammer testified that she gave the DVR to a forensic specialist who was able to recover still images from other recordings, including the two photos of Astaphan lying on top of Hernandez, while Peng looked on.

Hammer testified that she determined from cell tower records that Astaphan, Peng and Heng’s phones traveled the freeway and street routes that corresponded with Heng’s description of events.

Earlier in the hearing, Balian entered those records as evidence and outlined the routes of the three phones from the night of Sept. 22 until the early morning of Sept. 23, from the areas of the dispensary to the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County and then back.

Hammer testified that through a warrant, she received records from Astaphan’s phone which was recovered during his arrest on Nov. 19, 2020.

Hammer testified to several WhatsApp text messages between Astaphan and Peng.

On Sept. 20, 2020, a message about the alleged dispensary theft indicated that Astaphan suspected Romero or Hernandez.

A message from Peng’s phone read, “If you got a video of Juan, then we’re good.”

The two allegedly discussed punishment for said theft including, “have him crippled for life,” according to a message from Peng’s phone.

Using the cell tower evidence, Hammer followed the route to the Mojave Desert and Hernandez’ body was found on Nov. 15, 2020.

Dr. Brian Hutchins, a Forensic Pathologist with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, testified that he and other specialists conducted an autopsy of the body on Nov. 15, 2020.

Hutchins testified that the body was exhibiting “severe decomposition.”

On Nov. 16, 2020, using Mikrosil casting to lift fingerprints, the body was identified as Hernandez.

Due to the state of the body, Hutchins said that he could not determine the cause of death. The LAPD shared the photo evidence of Astaphan on top of Hernandez and asked Hutchins about possible strangulation. Hutchins could not check for petechial hemorrhaging or other physical conditions consistent with strangulation.

The toxicology report also came back negative for marijuana, alcohol, cocaine and methamphetamine, which are the only substances regularly tested for.

Hutchins said that further investigation of the body revealed a lethal dose of ketamine in Hernandez’ system, containing 3,800 nanograms per gram. He also testified that lethal doses of ketamine injected into muscle are considered to begin at 3,200 nanograms.

Astaphan’s defense attorney, Larson Hahm, a Los Angeles County deputy public defender, submitted a motion to the court for dismissal of the charges based on insufficient evidence. Pastor ruled against that motion.

Pastor informed Astaphan of his arraignment scheduled for March 16 at 8:30 a.m. in Department 117.

The Union News spoke separately outside of the hearing to both Hahm and Balian regarding Astaphan’s charges. They both said that Astaphan is facing a maximum of 25 years to life for one count of penal code 187(a), first-degree murder without a plea deal. Balian also said that the D.A.’s office is not alleging special circumstances which would have subjected Astaphan to a possible sentence of life without parole or the death penalty.

Several weeks after Hernandez’ death, Heng and Peng fled to Turkey. Peng returned about a month later and was arrested on Nov. 19, 2020.

Peng was eventually detained in Turkey and is fighting extradition to Los Angeles.

At the start of the preliminary hearing, Heng’s attorney, Mark S. Rafferty, notified the court that Heng was a cooperating witness for the prosecution and had accepted a plea deal for 112 days in jail and two years’ probation.

Heng served 56 days in jail, which counted as time served with half-time credit. She was originally charged with Calif. Penal Code Sec. 32, felony accessory after the fact, and faced a state prison sentence of 16 months to three years.

Heng said she was not offered a specific deal from the District Attorney’s office until January of 2021, weeks after she made a statement to Balian, Jaramillo and Hammer.

Heng will be sentenced on May 3 at Clara Shortridge Foltz Courthouse in Dept. 50.

Editor’s Note: Story updated to give proper writer credits on March 9, 2022 at 12:55 a.m.