Aiexpress – A California man has been sentenced to life in prison for fatally shooting two people, including TikTok sensation Anthony Barajas, in a movie theater in 2021.
Joseph Jimenez, 23, was sentenced to life without parole plus 50 years on Monday, according to a statement from the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.
He was suspected of killing Fylee Goodrich, 18, and Barajas, 19, on July 26, 2021, while watching a movie at the Regal Edwards Theater in Corona, a city about 23 miles east of Anaheim.
Catherine Barajas, Barajas’ mother, told reporters following the sentencing on Monday that she was “very happy this part is over.”
“It’s been a very long two and a half years, and it’s time to close this chapter to focus on our son and carry on his legacy,” she told reporters. “We’re going to do that by continuing to do small acts of kindness one at a time, to make a difference in the world and to keep him alive.”
On July 26, movie theater staff discovered Goodrich and Barajas had been shot in the head, with Goodrich declared dead at the scene and Barajas transferred to the hospital, where he was kept on life support for several days before succumbing to his injuries.
Jimenez, 20, was detained a day after the incident at his Corona home. He was later charged with two counts of murder, with a sentencing enhancement for personal use of a firearm that resulted in death.
In September, he entered a not guilty plea due to insanity, with his counsel alleging at trial that he was having a psychotic episode when he shot his victims.
In December, a judge concluded that Jimenez was sane at the time of the killings.
“Obviously, this is the end of a really painful experience for the entire community,” Jimenez’s attorney, Charles Kenyon, said at a press briefing following the sentencing.
“As the judge correctly pointed out, there are three families that lost somebody, and it’s really hard to really articulate how devastating this trial and this experience were for everybody.”
Kenyon went on to blame the murders on the mental health system, claiming that its shortcomings caused Jimenez to “suffer from a series of inadequate hospitalizations and just a lack of adequate mental health care.”
“I think it just goes to show you that our current system is very broken, and this is the ultimate example of how serious the results and consequences can be.”
Barajas was known on social media as @itsanthonymichael and had approximately 1 million followers on TickTok.
