Mother's Day 2018 erupted into violence early. Andrea Garcia says she was at her grandmother's house with her boyfriend, Everardo Valenton, and his brother Jose, when her ex-boyfriend and his brother came over and started a fight.
[Ads /]
When Daniel and Esteban Mariscal left, she says the Valentons followed them home a little while later.
"He said he went over there to fight because they fought at my grandma's house," she said. "So he felt like they disrespected my grandma's house, so disrespecting their house. and when he went to fight, they pulled out guns."
Investigators say Everardo and Jose picked up their brother Eduardo, who's also known as Snoopy. Fresno police say they opened fire at the Mariscals' house.
But Everardo told his girlfriend that's not what he had planned.
"Do you recall telling Detective Alvarez that Everardo told you that he said 'I told Snoopy not to shoot. I told him not to shoot. It was just gang fight'?" asked prosecutor Kendall Reynolds.
[Ads /]
"Yes," Garcia said.
One of the bullets hit 46-year-old Luis Mariscal in the back and coroners say the injury killed him 10 days later. Mariscal and his wife had gone to see their sons that Mother's Day.
RELATED: Fresno Mother's Day murder followed a fight over a woman
Prosecutors charged the Valentons with his murder, but Everardo told his girlfriend it was the Mariscals who started the gunfight.
He even had an injury to his leg and a new haircut to prove it.
"He had said that when they were shooting, a bullet hit him right here and it sliced," Garcia said. "His hair was in braids, I think, that day so when I guess when the bullet hit him, it cut the braid."
[Ads /]
Garcia said Everardo told her not to talk to police, and she said she wanted to stay out of the whole situation.
But she soon found out about Luis Mariscal's death, and when she talked about it in court, she started crying.
And now prosecutors are forcing her to talk about what she knows.
A judge is expected to decide whether there's enough evidence for the brothers to go on trial for murder.