A 70-year-old man has been charged with murder after a confrontation with landscapers in Southern California this week turned deadly, according to authorities and a property owner.
Michael Anthony Burke was being held without bail in San Diego County’s Vista Detention Facility on Friday in connection with the death of Martin Lucas Esteban, according to jail records and a criminal complaint.
Esteban, an immigrant from Guatemala, had been working at a property in Fallbrook, a community about 100 miles southeast of Los Angeles, before the shooting on Monday, according to Alan Hsu, the property’s owner.
The shooting occurred about 8 p.m. following an argument, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office said. One man was killed and a second was treated for a gunshot injury and has been released from the hospital, it said.
Burke has been charged with murder, attempted murder, and shooting into an inhabited vehicle, according to the criminal complaint. Each allegation includes a recommended sentence of 25 years to life, if convicted, the filing states.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges Thursday, according to plea documents obtained by NBC San Diego.
It’s not clear if Burke has retained a lawyer. The local public defender’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cellphone video of the apparent incident shows a man holding a shotgun and standing next to a pickup.
The video, which was verified by NBC News, doesn’t make clear the entire discussion, and it does not show appear to show what preceded the argument between the man with the shotgun and the two inside the pickup.
In the video, the man with the gun is heard threatening the men in the truck.
“I got mucho friends in the policia, highway patrol. That’s all right. You wanna die today?” the man says. Someone can be heard to ask him what he said.
“You wanna die today? I will kill you right now. Don’t f— with me. OK? You sabe? You sabe in Español or in Inglés?” the man with the gun says, using the Spanish word for “know.”
Afterward the man with the shotgun points it inside the truck’s cabin and the passenger grabs its barrel, the video shows. A struggle ensues, the gun goes off, and the man with the weapon eventually says, “See, you f—-d around,” according to the video.
San Diego County Sheriff’s Lt. Juan Marquez said investigators are aware of the video and that prosecutors have reviewed it.
“The Sheriff’s Homicide Unit is conducting a thorough and comprehensive investigation into this matter,” he said by email.
Hsu, the owner of the property being landscaped, a vacation rental, said Burke is a caretaker for an adjacent property and lives on the parcel.
He described the suspect as having an “angry demeanor.”
“He wasn’t the friendliest person in the world,” Hsu said.
The victim’s daughter, Martina Lucas, said her father was invited to the location to help a friend with landscaping, which Hsu confirmed. He said Martin Lucas had worked at the property before.
Martina Lucas said her dad was a good father.
“That guy had no heart killing him,” she said outside a court hearing for the suspect on Thursday, according to NBC San Diego. “My father didn’t deserve to die.”
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