Spring Valley Man Convicted of First-Degree Murder for Stabbing Attack

A Spring Valley man who stabbed another East County resident who defeated him in a fistfight three months earlier was convicted Monday of first-degree murder.

Hector Hernandez-Romero, 33, will be sentenced Jan. 19 by El Cajon Judge Gary Bubis.

Jurors reached their verdict after deliberating over parts of four days.

Prosecutors said the defendant went to a home in the 700 block of Sacramento Avenue about 8:10 p.m. the night of the killing and argued with 30- year-old Roque Varela before stabbing him with a knife.

Varela, who died at a hospital about a half-hour after the attack, had been visiting a friend that he and Hernandez-Romero had in common at the time of the stabbing, prosecutors said.

The defendant was arrested about 5:50 a.m. the next day at a residence in the 3200 block of Central Avenue in Spring Valley.

Witnesses testified that the victim and the defendant had argued and fought three months earlier when Hernandez-Romero told Varela to quiet down as the victim talked on his cellphone in front of the defendant's home.

The two men did not know each other before the fight, which Varela won, said Deputy District Attorney Heather Trocha.

Hernandez-Romero faces 26 years to life in prison at sentencing, Trocha said.

– City News Service