Witness in Fresno County triple murder court hearing describes eye-gouging fight
The preliminary hearing for a Coarsegold man, charged with three separate murders, began Monday with witnesses describing an intense fight that may have sparked one of the killings.
Andrew Levi Hammond, 28, is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole or the death penalty, if he’s convicted of all the charges.
Hammond is charged with the deaths of 41-year-old Fernando Gonzales on September 28, 2020, 47-year-old Steven Rice on October 21, 2022, and Brandon Munoz, 39, on November 2, 2022. All of the victims were from Fresno and died by gunshot.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Kelly Smith will present evidence over three days as part of the preliminary hearing in Judge Kimberly A. Gaab’s courtroom. The judge will decide if there’s sufficient evidence for the case to move forward to a jury trial.
Smith began Monday’s hearing with evidence in the killing of Rice, who was gunned down in a garage at a home near Indianapolis and Sherman avenues.
Police said Hammond was driven to Rice’s location by the brother of a man who was brutally assaulted by Rice just moments before the shooting.
Witness Edward Gonzales testified that he was visiting friends at an east central Fresno home the day of the shooting when he saw a fight between Rice and Justin Cox, who was a living at the home.
There was bad blood between the two men, Gonzales said, and an argument quickly escalated to a physical fight. Also at the home was Hammond.
“Dopey (Rice’s nickname) jumped on top of Justin and was gouging his eye out,” Gonzales testified. “I never heard a grown man scream like that. Dopey was choking him and trying to hold him down.”
After the fight ended, Rice left and someone called Cox’s brother, Ryan Clowers, who arrived about 10 minutes later.
Gonzales, Cox, Clowers, and Hammond got into Clowers’s car, and drove to a nearby house where Rice could be found. Clowers said he didn’t know Hammond and described him as a guy with long hair, wearing a black hoodie and a mask.
Clowers testified that he just wanted to talk with Rice and not try to fight him. He admits though he brought a baseball bat with him, just in case.
When Clowers drove up to the house, he parked near the driveway and everyone got out. He could see the garage was open. Clowers was about a third of the way up the driveway when he heard shots being fired.
At first, he didn’t know if the shots were being fired at him or his brother.
“I see the guy who was in my car with the hoodie fire a gun,” Clowers said. “I started yelling to my brother to get in the car. He got in and so did the guy in black. I was on probation at the time and I’ve been in trouble before, so I just wanted to get out of there.”
Clowers stopped the car a short distance away and told the man with the black hoodie to get out of his car. Clowers also told detectives that the man warned them against speaking to police.
Smith also called Clowers’s brother, Justin Cox to the witness stand, but he offered little helpful information.
Cox said he didn’t remember the fight with Price, getting hurt in the fight, or the shooting.
“I don’t remember any of this,” he said, as he fidgeted in his seat.
Hammond’s defense attorney Richard A. Beshwate Jr. asked Cox if he was under the influence.
“I am always under the influence,” he replied.
The preliminary hearing continues Tuesday.
This story was originally published July 24, 2023 at 7:28 PM.
