Two men were ordered Thursday to stand trial for robbing a La Jolla man during a home invasion burglary. One man was additionally ordered to stand trial for a murder in Santee.
Witnesses testified for three days in the preliminary hearing in El Cajon Superior Court in the case against Jose Nunez Torres, 22, and Gustavo Ceron, 25.
Both men are charged with robbing Robert Hill, who testified the men climbed through his kitchen window on Oct. 12, 2016. Hill said one man carried a pistol.
“He put the gun in my face and backed me up to the doorway to the living room,” said Hill, who said he was robbed of cash and credit cards.
Torres was also ordered to stand trial for the murder of Leticia Arroyo, 34, who was found shot to death in her Santee town home a week earlier on Oct. 4. Deputy District Attorney Jim Koerber asked Judge Robert Amador to order Torres to also stand trial for personal use of a firearm in a homicide which the judge agreed to do.
Koerber said afterward Torres could face 25 years in prison on just the gun use alone plus 25 years consecutively if he is convicted of first-degree murder.
Both men were ordered to next appear in court on Aug. 28 to set a trial date. The case is in El Cajon because of the murder in Santee.
Torres was also ordered to stand trial for evading officers with reckless driving, driving under the influence of a drug, possession of narcotics paraphernalia, and auto theft.
A National City police officer testified he saw a stolen Honda sedan whose license plate was associated with the home invasion robbery in La Jolla on Oct. 16, 2016. The officer said he tried to make a traffic stop upon the two occupants in the car, but the driver sped up on National City Boulevard and he lost sight of them.
Torres remains in jail on $1 million bail, but Ceron is being held on $305,000 bail. They have both pleaded not guilty.