Overview
- He admitted in federal court to murdering Cesar Murillo and his six-months-pregnant wife, Maira Hernandez, to further a drug-trafficking conspiracy and to causing the death of the child in utero.
- Prosecutors say Murillo was shot on August 28, 2022, at a ranch near Yakima, and days later Hernandez was lured there and shot multiple times in the head.
- HSI had interviewed the couple in August 2022 as part of the San Diego investigation, and their bodies were later recovered on September 13, 2023, from an unmarked grave in Washington’s high desert.
- Madrigal-Birrueta pleaded to two murder counts under 21 U.S.C. § 848(e) and one count under the federal fetal homicide statute, avoiding a potential death penalty and facing a plea-agreement minimum of 20 years in prison.
- Sentencing is set for March 27, 2026, a co-defendant is scheduled for trial on October 27, 2025, and other alleged conspirators remain unaccounted for in public filings.