A San Diego man charged with offing his ex-girlfriend’s fiance was found guilty of murder Monday — after records showed he searched online how to carry out the grisly misdeed.
Prosecutors presented evidence that Jesse Alvarez, 33, Googled “how to kill your ex’s fiancé” and “in California can you shoot someone trying to rob you?” before he gunned down Mario Fierro, 37, outside his apartment in 2021.
Alvarez had become incensed when he learned through a Facebook post that Fierro was engaged to his ex-girlfriend, Amy Gembara, who he had dated off and on between 2015 and 2019, according to FOX 10.
After staking out Fierro’s North Park home for over an hour, Alvarez shot him six times — four times in the head — following an altercation.
In addition to the internet searches, Alvarez had taken shooting lessons after learning of the engagement, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
Fierro and Gembara were both teachers at the Cathedral Catholic High School in San Diego, where Alvarez had tried to secure a job serving food to be near the ex he had become obsessed with.
Gembara had tried to obtain a restraining order against Alvarez after he incessantly tried to contact and track her down, but she was denied after he promised to leave her alone.
Within two days of that promise, Alvarez tried to make contact again.
While taking the stand during his trial on March 7, Alvarez testified that he had undiagnosed autism which fueled that obsession, and prevented him from understanding that Gembara was done with him.
He also claimed the internet searches were just “bad fantasies.”
Defense attorneys for Alvarez argued that he did not intend to kill Fierro when he went to his home, but that the victim punched first and so he shot in self-defense.
Prosecutors — and convicting jurors — weren’t having it.
“His intent is crystal clear,” Deputy District Attorney Ramona McCarthy told the court, according to the Union-Tribune.
Alvarez faces life without parole after being convicted of first-degree murder.