Man charged with killing 2 Corona teens scheduled to enter pleas at hearing Monday

The man accused of fatally shooting two teenagers who were on a date at a Corona movie theater in July is scheduled to enter pleas to two counts of murder on Monday, Sept. 27.

The hearing for Joseph Jimenez, 20, will take place at 8:30 a.m. at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

Jimenez, in a jailhouse interview with a Southern California News Group reporter, said he suffers from schizophrenia and that he heard voices that told him to kill the pair. Rylee Goodrich, 18, and Anthony Barajas, 19, along with Jimenez, were the only customers remaining in theater No. 15 at the Regal Edwards cinema on July 26 after three friends of Jimenez fled when he retrieved a gun from his car and began talking to himself.

“I wish I didn’t do it,” Jimenez said in the interview.

Goodrich was pronounced dead inside the theater at the Crossings at Corona shopping center. Barajas died on July 31.

Jimenez faces special circumstance allegations of lying in wait and committing multiple murders, which make him eligible for the death penalty if convicted as charged. No decision has been made on pursuing the death penalty, court records show.

Barajas was a 2019 graduate of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, where he was an honor student, soccer star and had lead roles in school plays. He also had hundreds of thousands of followers on his TikTok social media account.

The soccer team plans to honor Barajas this season with a special logo, school spokesperson Allison Bergeron said Friday. The players will also follow a European soccer tradition by stopping and clapping at the 9th minute of a match to coincide with Barajas’ uniform No. 9. Their first home match is on Dec. 1.

Goodrich graduated from Corona High School’s STEM Academy with a focus on health in June 2020 and was enrolled at Grand Canyon University in Arizona.