Man with history of domestic violence to stand trial for Fresno mom's murder
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- A man accused of killing his girlfriend after a violent relationship will stand trial for murder.
A judge decided today there is enough evidence to hold Brandon Moreno to answer for the death of Yanina Olivarez.
Moreno has a history of domestic violence and according to police, Olivarez warned her closest friends about the physical assaults happening at the hands of Moreno.
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Neighbors told officers they often heard fighting inside the apartment.
Detective Raul Diaz saw the signs. There was blood on the bed, in the bathroom, and in the shower drain. Then he stumbled upon something else - the victim's glasses were broken.
"These prescription glasses were broken from, I believe, the right temple and in the glasses and within these glasses there were strands of hair that was tangled," he said.
Investigators interviewed countless family members and friends of the victim - 32-year-old Yanina Olivarez. She had warned several of them about the abusive relationship she was involved in. Two months before she died, she sent a text message to her sister and a close friend.
In the message, she wrote asking that if anything were to happen to her, to please make sure to take care of her son.
Around the same time, detectives say the victim moved out of the apartment she shared with Moreno, but she returned weeks later to try to work things out. But when the violence got bad again, she moved her kindergarten-aged son to live with her parents in Tulare.
Officers said the day before the homicide; the victim came to work looking disheveled. She was upset and used a landline phone to call someone. On the phone, she became very emotional. Witnesses said she was telling the person she was not going to leave them.
The judge ruled there is enough evidence to hold Moreno to answer. If convicted, he could spend 64 years to life in prison.
