Ethan Kedar Astaphan and Weijia Peng were found guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of Juan Hernandez, pictured. (Photos from the family’s Help Me Find Juan website)
The owner and manager of an unlicensed California marijuana dispensary were convicted of murdering their college student co-worker with a ketamine injection and dumping his body in the desert because they thought he stole money and pot.
Ethan Kedar Astaphan, 30, and Weijia “James” Peng, 34, were found guilty in a Los Angeles courtroom of first-degree murder in the killing of Juan Carlos Hernandez, whose body was discovered in a shallow grave near Barstow, California, in 2020.
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“I’m sad my son is not coming back,” Hernandez said outside after court, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. “I’m glad they got caught, and they’ll be paying for what they did. Now we’re just figuring out what’s next and how to heal.”
Astaphan’s attorney, Larson Hahm, argued for a second-degree murder conviction, saying the killing wasn’t preplanned, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.
Astaphan, the manager at the unlicensed and now dismantled VIP Collective, and Peng, the owner, killed Hernandez on Sept. 22, 2020, taking