Construction worker returned to job site, killed grandma in burglary, CA officials say
A construction worker accused of killing a 76-year-old grandmother during a burglary at a home where he previously worked has been convicted, California prosecutors say.
A jury found Heber Enoc Diaz, 33, guilty on multiple counts, including murder, on Thursday, Nov. 7, in relation to the 2019 death of Chyong Jen Tsai, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said in a Nov. 12 news release.
Simon Aval, Diaz’s attorney, said he had no comment about his client’s conviction in a Nov. 12 email to McClatchy News.
“Chyong Jen Tsai was killed during a burglary of her own home — a place where she should have been safe and secure,” District Attorney George Gascón said in the release. “This crime is particularly heartbreaking as Ms. Tsai was simply at home when she encountered an intruder.”
Tsai found Diaz in the garage of her Arcadia home on April 9, 2019, prosecutors said.
A contractor had previously hired Diaz to work on Tsai’s home renovations, prosecutors said. Diaz is accused of burglarizing the home while working on the property, prosecutors said.
He returned three weeks later to “commit another burglary,” deputies told the Pasadena Star-News.
At the time, he was no longer working at the home, prosecutors said.
When Tsai encountered Diaz “burglarizing her garage,” he is accused of attacking her with a hammer, a jab saw and a box cutter, prosecutors said.
“As soon as he saw her, Ms. Tsai was going to die,” Deputy District Attorney Miriam Avalos told jurors, saying that Diaz caused the victim “unimaginable pain,” City News Service reported.
Tsai “was beaten, strangled and stabbed multiple times, then covered with several shovelfuls of dirt,” investigators said, according to the Pasadena Star-News.
Diaz is accused of ransacking the home and fleeing with Tsai’s and her husband’s “belongings, including a wallet, credit cards, documents, and their Lexus RX 300,” officials said, the newspaper reported.
After Tsai was found in her backyard, Arcadia police officers arrived to find she was not breathing, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in an April 2019 Facebook post.
She was pronounced dead on scene, deputies said.
Tsai’s daughter, Nancy Tsai, told the Pasadena Star-News that when she arrived at the home, “It looked like a set for a crime show.”
“This was my childhood home,” she told the newspaper.
Tsai’s white Lexus SUV was missing from her home, deputies said, adding that there was a reward for information leading to an arrest in her death.
Her SUV was found in Los Angeles on April 18, 2019, the sheriff’s department said, NBC Los Angeles reported.
The next day, Diaz was arrested as he left his Pasadena home, deputies said, the outlet reported.
Cellphone records and DNA linked Diaz to the killing, officials said, City News Service reported.
Diaz was charged with capital murder on June 26, 2019, according to the district attorney’s news release.
In addition to murder, Diaz was found guilty by the jury of a slew of other charges, including two felony counts of second-degree burglary, and one felony count each of first-degree residential burglary, second-degree robbery and elder abuse, according to prosecutors.
“Our sincere condolences go out to Ms. Tsai’s family, who have endured unimaginable loss,” Gascón said. “We understand that nothing can truly fill the void left by her absence, but we hope that the guilty verdicts brings a measure of justice and peace.”
Diaz faces life in prison and is expected to appear in court for sentencing on Dec. 16, prosecutors said.
Arcadia is about a 17-mile drive northeast from Los Angeles.
This story was originally published November 12, 2024 at 2:38 PM with the headline "Construction worker returned to job site, killed grandma in burglary, CA officials say."
