Lamont, CA– A California man who bludgeoned his co-worker to death says the victim ‘provoked all of this’ after he was teased about his ex sleeping with the victim.
50-year-old Jose Luis Gutierrez-Rosales was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison Tuesday, for fatally beating his co-worker, 56-year-old Hector Javier Castaneda Vasquez in 2022.
Authorities say they were called to a farming company’s work field around 10:30 a.m. on April 18, in connection to a man who had been badly beaten by another coworker.
When officials arrived, Vasquez was found “lying on his back in the dirt with massive injuries to his face and head,” he was later pronounced dead at the scene.
Witnesses told police that Gutierrez-Rosales picked up a heavy metal pipe and began hitting Vasquez over the head with it. At some point, Vasquez fell to the ground on his back and Gutierrez-Rosales stood over him and continued to strike him in the face.
At least one person attempted to stop the attack and the others told authorities they saw the attack from a distance and believed Gutierrez-Rosales was striking a snake.
Gutierrez-Rosales initially told investigators that he felt strange after eating:
“We were there picking up the pipes,” Gutierrez-Rosales reportedly explained. “I ate about two tacos, and I felt my body like strange, and then all of a sudden, I grabbed the pipe, and I just started going at him.”
He later confessed that he attacked Vasquez due to rumors that Vasquez was having an affair with his wife and after being teased by at least two coworkers about the affair.
“They provoked all of this,” Rosales said.
It was also said that Gutierrez-Rosales reportedly shouted, “this is for getting involved with my family” at Vasquez while he beat him with a pipe.
During the sentencing hearing on Tuesday Attorney’s told the courtroom that Gutierrez-Rosales was dangerous:
“Workplace harassment in all forms should be discouraged, but it is no excuse for the brutal beating and murder of another human being,” Kern County District Attorney Cynthia Zimmer said following the verdict. “Anyone who is so quick to kill based on so little provocation proves themself to be an unacceptable threat to public safety. Murder charges are appropriate when mere rumors and innuendo are countered with deadly and brutally violent acts.”