Detectives testify robbery setup led to murder of Hoover High student
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A man accused of killing a Hoover High School student last year, during what Fresno Police believe was a robbery setup, listened to the evidence against him Tuesday.
Andrew Vann, 17, died during the confrontation outside a church on Chestnut and Holland. The deals were made on Facebook and police say just before the homicide, Lorenzo Anderson was involved in another attempted robbery.
The victims were shot at during that confrontation but lived to tell about it.
"They kind of look alike but, to be honest, he kinda looks like the one who shot at me," the victim said in court.
The judge asked Action News not to identify the victim who was grazed by a bullet during an attempted robbery in the same church parking lot that Andrew Vann died in days later. The tearful victim said she and her boyfriend arranged to trade marijuana for a phone when things went terribly wrong.
"I just remember we were just screaming at each other to just go," she told the court. "Just telling him to press the gas, and he was trying, but the car just wasn't moving."
Less than two weeks later, officers say Vann met Anderson in the same church parking lot. During an interview with homicide detectives, he admitted being present during the deadly shooting.
"Anderson told me he was there and he heard a gunshot, but it wasn't him and he hadn't done that," Sgt. Adrian Alvarez testified.
Alvarez got a warrant for Anderson's Facebook account. The day of the homicide there was a conversation with a young woman in which he said he was going to do a "lick."
"It's common knowledge on the street that when an individual says they are going to go do a 'lick,' he is talking about a robbery," he said.
The first officer who arrived at the scene described Vann's condition. He slowly made it a short distance away from the spot detectives say he was shot in the left rib area.
"He did not appear to be conscious," officer Erik Castillo said. "He was leaning over in the seat with his face down on his lap and he was wearing a seatbelt."
The Hoover High School student died a short time later and officers say that Anderson left the scene.
