The two marijuana dispensary workers found guilty of El Camino College student Juan Hernandez’s murder face up to life in prison after their sentencing Thursday, April 25.

Judge Mark Hanasono sentenced Weijia Peng of Alhambra to at least 26 years in prison with the possibility of life imprisonment and Ethan Astaphan of San Gabriel to 25 to life for the murder of Hernandez.

Peng received a one-year deadly weapon enhancement for his use of a syringe to inject Hernandez with a lethal dose of ketamine.

Hernandez’s mother, Yajaira Hernandez, and his aunt, Stephanie Pineda, both gave victim impact statements in court at Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Downtown Los Angeles.

“Your actions have shattered our lives and devastated our family beyond measure,” Pineda said, swallowing sobs.

She came to court in a T-shirt with a photo of Juan Hernandez above the word “missing” and a large poster that also included her nephew’s photo.

“I want you to look at Juan Carlos Hernandez’s picture, to imprint his face and name in your memory, so that you will never forget what you have done. You have taken away a bright future and left us with nothing but pain and sorrow,” Pineda said.

Peng, 34, was sitting at a table with his back to the public seats in the courtroom. He never turned to face the family but stared forward toward the floor for the duration of the hearing.

Astaphan, 30, was seated at the side of the courtroom and faced each person who spoke, including Hanasono, Pineda and Yajaira Hernandez.

“Astaphan and James [Peng], you took everything from me,” Yajaira Hernandez said. “I am certain that I will never recover from this tragedy. I will never experience happiness without feeling miserable and remorseful for being alive and my son gone.”

After nearly three weeks of trial in February, Peng and Astaphan were convicted for the Sept. 22, 2020 murder of Juan Hernandez who worked as a budtender at VIP Collective, an unlicensed marijuana dispensary on Western Avenue in South Central Los Angeles. Peng owned the dispensary and Astaphan was the manager.

Recovered security camera images showed Astaphan appearing to choke Juan Hernandez on the dispensary floor while Peng is shown bending down toward to inject him.

The LAPD used cell tower evidence to track the movement of the defendants’ phones into the desert where a search over several days led them to Juan Hernandez’s remains.

On November 19, 2020, with the help of cadaver dogs, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputies and LAPD detectives located her son’s remains in the Mojave Desert.

“You made every attempt to destroy my son’s belongings, dumping his body in the middle of nowhere so that he could never be found,” Yajaira Hernandez said.

In the hallway outside court after the April 25 sentencing hearing, Los Angeles County Assistance District Attorney Habib Balian credited Yajaira Hernandez for pushing the LAPD to investigate her son’s disappearance.

Balian said Yajaira Hernandez and her sister, Pineda, went to the dispensary after Juan Hernandez disappeared and were surprised when Astaphan said there was no security footage.

Yajaira Hernandez shared her suspicions with the LAPD and Balian said that prompted the police to get a search warrant for the dispensary, leading to the recovery of the digital video recorder.

“The last three-and-a-half years, I’ve been fighting for my son,” Yajaira Hernandez told The Union in the hallway outside court while waiting for the case to be called.“Now at the end, I’m still broken. I’m still messed up. I don’t know what’s next.”