BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — A third suspect has been arrested in connection with a shooting at Valley Plaza mall that police said occurred over stolen French bulldogs.
Nazianna Mialani Garcia, 21, was arrested Monday after arriving at Kern County Superior Court, police said. Co-defendant Joe George Garcia had a hearing scheduled that morning.
She pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to attempted murder and two counts related to assault with a gun, and is being held on $500,000 bail.
Nazianna Garcia, Joe Garcia, 53, and Abraham Hernandez-Morales, 20, were allegedly involved in the Aug. 2 shooting in a mall parking lot that seriously wounded a woman. According to police reports, the shooting happened during an exchange of two stolen French bulldogs.
The wounded woman told police a friend had asked her to take the animals to the mall where an interested buyer would pay her $5,000 for each dog. She said she didn’t know they were stolen.
After arriving at the mall, she was approached by a man in his 20s who was with an older man and a woman in a gray car, she told police. The younger man told her to give him the dogs but she said she needed to get paid first, the reports say.
The man returned to his car, then came back with the older man, who said, “Give me the f—ing dogs or I’m going to blow your f—ing head off,” the woman told police.
She handed the dogs through the driver’s side window. That’s when the younger man pulled a gun from his waistband and opened fire, she told police. She said she immediately called 911 and saw the suspects leave in the gray vehicle.
Police served warrants on social media accounts and conducted cellphone pings and eventually identified Hernandez-Morales as the younger man, according to the documents. The wounded woman identified him as the man who shot her, the reports say.
The Garcias were later identified as the other suspects.
The District Attorney’s Office is seeking to consolidate their cases so that all three appear together at future court hearings. They’re due back in court next month.
