A condemned figure in East L.A. finally meets his fate after a string of cold-blooded murders

24 August 2025

Anthony Velasquez. ABC7/YouTube

Los Angeles in the final weeks of August 2025 became the backdrop for a moment of reckoning as 35-year-old Anthony Velasquez, a man who had haunted East Los Angeles neighborhoods for years, was handed a sentence of 150 years to life in prison on August 22 after being convicted on three counts of first-degree murder. His victims, Jesse Avalos, 34, Eduardo Robles, 38, and Amanda Nicole Lopez, 27, fell prey to his perceived slights between 2014 and 2018, their lives extinguished in separate incidents within a two-mile radius.

Prosecutors revealed that Velasquez claimed he was driven to violence by feelings of disrespect, a chilling motive laid bare in court. Evidence had tied the same firearm to at least two of the shootings, weaving a grim narrative of premeditated violence. During sentencing, Amanda Lopez’s mother delivered a searing rebuke, proclaiming "You Anthony are and always will be nothing more than a certified homicidal serial killer who has no heart and no conscience," a devastating indictment that echoed through the courtroom. In spite of the weight of the evidence, Velasquez has maintained his innocence, and his defense attorney has filed an appeal. The victories belonged to the families of Avalos, Robles, and Lopez whose tears and grief gave face to the unimaginable losses that had haunted the community.

Over those four years the killings played out in quiet corners of East Los Angeles. The first struck on February 10, 2014, when Avalos was shot multiple times in the head while sitting in his blue SUV after assisting with a jump-start on Telegraph Road and Arizona Avenue late at night. The following year on July 6, 2015, Robles was shot in the upper torso during an altercation in a driveway on Eagle Street. The final slaying came in the early hours of April 22, 2018, when Lopez was found fatally shot while sleeping in a tent near a homeless encampment. Each act of violence happened close to one another, weaving a tapestry of terror that spread through the neighborhood.

In 2021 authorities offered an $80,000 reward for information that could finally break the case. It was a turning point. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department had declared, "We know there were witnesses at every murder," and their efforts paid off when tips and information led to Velasquez’s arrest just a month after the reward announcement. The prosecution’s case was fortified by ballistic evidence connecting Velasquez’s weapon to Avalos’s and Robles’s murders, a forensic link that helped unravel years of mystery.

At trial, the tension was palpable. His attorney, Leslie Ann Boyce, stood firm in defense of her client’s innocence, noting that he had never wavered in his claim that he was not responsible for the murders. And yet the court disagreed, delivering a verdict that would ensure Velasquez would never walk free again.

The sentencing hearing became a prism through which the victims’ families channeled their grief, anger, and demand for closure. Lopez’s mother, Rozelle, addressed Velasquez directly with haunting clarity, refusing to give him any semblance of redemption or humanity. Her words, searing and unfiltered, placed the man in the dock not only as a convicted killer but as a symbol of unspeakable loss. As Velasquez was led away to a prison sentence that could stretch a lifetime, the courtroom remained suspended in the quiet aftermath of justice served.

This case is marked not only by the brutality of three unspeakable murders but by the long arc of patience and determination required to bring a serial killer to justice. Despite the tragedy, his conviction offers vindication to the community. But questions linger about why so many years passed without resolution. The appeal now filed may prolong that anguish for those who only recently found some peace. Until then, Los Angeles will carry this story as both a warning and a lesson in persistence.