A 31-year-old man was sentenced Wednesday to 26 years to life in prison for killing his 84-year-old grandfather six years ago in Cypress, according to multiple sources. He was initially arrested in 2019 after officers were called to the scene and found his grandfather’s body.
David Jacob Tenorio was convicted Sept. 21 of first-degree murder with a sentencing enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon in the Feb. 12, 2019 killing of 84-year-old David Tenorio Sr.
The victim “did not deserve to die, but especially not like this,” Senior Deputy District Attorney Devin Campbell said in a sentencing brief.
“The evidence showed that the victim tried to fight back, after being viciously attacked in his own bed, before being ultimately overpowered by the larger, younger, and more muscular defendant,” Campbell said.
“The victim’s fear and terror during the entire ordeal must have been horrendous; yet compounding that with the realization he was about to die by the hand of his own family member, who he had raised from an infant, must have been unimaginably excruciating.”
Tenorio had 2,802 days credit behind bars for the killing. He refused to come to court for the hearing, so the sentencing was done with a video- conference link.
Tenorio’s attorney, Tom Nocella of the Alternate Defender’s Office, said his client had no criminal history and has struggled with a “mental disorder since 2019.” In 2020, a psychological analysis diagnosed Tenorio with delusional disorder and depression. Nocella requested 15 years to life in prison.
The psychological report from 2020 detailed a troubled upbringing for Tenorio with parents who struggled with addictions. On the rare occasions he saw his mother the two would get high together, according to the report.
Tenorio lived with his father “intermittently” when he was 9 to 14 years old and witnessed multiple instances of domestic violence, according to the report.
Tenorio saw his grandparents as “like my parents,” according to the report.
Before the killing, the roles were reversed and Tenorio was looking after his grandparents, according to the report. Tenorio said he and his grandfather began to believe their home was haunted and that on the night before his grandfather’s death the defendant had taken methamphetamine.
Tenorio said in the weeks leading up to the killing he, “heard God telling me that my grandfather was a good child, but he was suffering and that I needed to take his life,” according to the report. Tenorio claimed he believed his grandfather was possessed by demons, the report stated.
The caretaker for the grandparents, who lived with the defendant at 6804 Ossabaw Court, arrived for work at about 8 a.m. the day the victim was discovered and was surprised the door was locked since the victim usually left it open for her, Campbell said in a trial brief.
The caretaker, who was hired to look after the victim’s wife as she struggled with “severe dementia,” called the victim’s phone but it went straight to voicemail and the land line didn’t work, Campbell said.
The caretaker found another way into the home and got to work but found the victim later when she went to check on him in his room, the prosecutor said. The grandfather had a pillow covering him and “the room was covered in blood,” Campbell said.
The senior Tenorio suffered a fracture to his neck consistent with strangulation, Campbell said.
Police sought the defendant, who was seen later at a cafe in Huntington Beach. He had arrived on foot and was asking the employees he knew there for a ride to his mother’s home, Campbell said.
The defendant left without a ride and was tracked down at his mother’s home in Garden Grove, Campbell said.
Police found the victim’s wallet in the defendant’s backpack along with clothes, personal hygiene items, two $100 bills and a gold ring, Campbell said. Investigators also found the victim’s blood on the defendant’s socks, Campbell said.
Investigators also found the defendant’s DNA on a bloody belt at the crime scene, Campbell added.
When he was left alone during questioning by police the defendant said to himself that “his grandfather was possessed,” according to Tenorio’s attorney.
“Mr. Tenorio indicated that his actions occurred to prevent the end of the world,” Nocella said in court papers and stated in a City News Service report.