A jury Monday found Albert Lee Blake guilty of first-degree murder, three counts of attempted murder and a count of cruelty to a child for his role in the 2019 shooting of an Otay Mesa fast food restaurant.
The jury found that Blake, 51, killed 28-year-old Maribel Merino Ibanez at the Church's Chicken restaurant at 3726 Del Sol Blvd. on Nov. 6, 2019.
Ibanez was fatally wounded in the shooting, and two other employees were hospitalized, one of whom was shot in the stomach and arm, while another was shot in the back. A third worker was fired upon, but was not struck by the gunfire, according to prosecutors.
Deputy District Attorney Mary Loeb said Blake tried to use a counterfeit $100 bill to purchase food, but was rebuffed by Ibanez.
The prosecutor said he then left the restaurant and went to his car where he "prepared himself to kill over this slight" by changing clothes in order to better conceal a 9mm pistol he planned to take back into the eatery, then re-positioning his car near the restaurant's exit so he could easily escape.
After the shooting, Blake fled the state and was arrested later that month in Memphis, Tennessee.
Though no surveillance footage was available from inside the restaurant, investigators located images of the shooter's vehicle through smart street-light cameras, Loeb said.
The prosecutor said investigators pinned the vehicle down as a Dodge Charger, and found that Blake had been contacted by police on prior occasions that year in a similar vehicle.
With Blake identified as the driver, Loeb said his phone records helped police track down his girlfriend. At her home, police found the same brand of ammunition used in the shooting, as well as Blake's car.
Inside the car were two counterfeit $100 bills with Blake's fingerprints on them, Loeb said. The car's steering wheel and gearshift also tested positive for gunshot residue, according to the prosecutor.
Loeb claimed Blake's cell phone was also in the area of the shooting on Nov. 6 and did not move from that location until just after the shooting occurred.
Another cell phone tied to Blake contained pictures of him with a similar haircut and clothes matching descriptions of the shooter. By tracking that second phone, police were able to locate him in Tennessee, Loeb said.
Defense attorney Katie Nagler told jurors that Blake was wrongfully accused, saying police "honed in on Mr. Blake in less than 48 hours, and everything afterwards was built around making him their suspect."
The attorney said the identification of the shooter's vehicle as a Dodge Charger was based on assumptions made by investigators, who she said could not have positively identified the car's make and model through the images provided them by smart street lights.
Once police discovered Blake had a similar vehicle as the shooter, "they were glued to him," Nagler said.
According to the defense attorney, no forensic evidence such as DNA or fingerprints tied Blake to the restaurant, and the witnesses' identification of the suspect were unreliable.
Though all the witnesses generally described the shooter as a tall Black man, Nagler said other details regarding the suspect differed among witness accounts.
