Fresno man who says voices told him to kill his mother will face murder trial
A Fresno man who is accused of using a hammer to kill his mother will face a jury trial, a Fresno County judge ruled Tuesday.
Judge Brian Alvarez found there was enough evidence for Gilberto Tiznado, 43, to be tried for murdering his 56-year-old mother, Guadalupe Rivera Guzman, on Oct. 19, 2019 inside her central Fresno home.
If convicted, Tiznado faces 26-years-to-life in prison.
Prosecutor David Olmos alleges Tiznado killed his mother after getting into an argument with her over seeking treatment for his addiction to methamphetamine and taking greater responsibility for his children.
In a videotaped interview with detectives, shown during his preliminary hearing, Tiznado admits to killing his mother.
But, the defendant says during the interview, it was voices in his head that were telling him to do it.
“I knew it was wrong, and I didn’t want to do it,” Tiznado told detectives Daniel Laband and Bart Ledbetter. “But the voices kept telling me.”
Tiznado says during the interview that he took a large hammer from inside the home, walked into the kitchen where his mother had just cooked him breakfast and struck her several times in the head until she collapsed on the floor.
“I kept striking her and striking her, and then I ran back to my room crying my head off,” Tiznado tells detectives.
He went back a short time later to see if she was breathing and she was. He hit her a few more times until she was dead, he says during the interview.
Tiznado says he then grabbed some towels and bleach to clean up the blood on the kitchen floor. He also used a blanket from his mother’s bedroom and a black plastic bag to cover the body.
As he was thinking about what to do next, his brother Miguel Guererro came home from working out of state and confronted his brother about what he had done.
Tiznado, in the taped interview, says he considered killing his brother, as well.
“I was going to whack him,” he tells detectives. “I had the hammer right there and I was going to whack him.”
Guererro testified that he was shocked to find his mother wrapped in a black plastic bag and a blanket. He called 911 and tried CPR to revive her but it was too late.
Guererro, who has had his own battles with addiction to methamphetamine, appeared reluctant to implicate his brother.
Under questioning by prosecutor David Olmos, Guererro said he doesn’t know what happened to their mother and wants his brother to be free.
“I love my brother and I want him out,” Guererro said.
Defense attorney Greg Gross raised a doubt about Tiznado’s mental competency on Oct. 17, 2022 and the judge ordered the defendant be evaluated by Dr. Luis H. Velosa, a psychiatrist from Visalia.
Velosa found Tiznado is competent to stand trial and Judge Gabriel Brickey allowed the case to move forward.
Tiznado’s next court appearance is March 8 in Department 30.
This story was originally published February 22, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
