Old Town Clovis double murder defense: 'Too drunk'
Surveillance video from The Palace shows Eddie Cordero firing the shots that killed Merehildo Luna and Andres Sanchez in May 2021.
CLOVIS, Calif. (KFSN) -- The fate of a man who killed two people in a Clovis nightclub now lies in the hands of a jury.
Attorneys made their closing arguments Monday afternoon in the trial against Eddie Cordero.
Cordero isn't denying he killed two people at The Palace last May. He's not saying much at all.
But some of what he's said since his arrest got recorded and the jury heard it Monday.
Surveillance video from The Palace shows Cordero firing the shots that killed Merehildo Luna and Andres Sanchez in May 2021.
About an hour before that, video showed Cordero arguing with Luna.
RELATED: Old Town Clovis double murder trial starts with 1st view of surveillance video
Angel Mejia noticed.
He testified in Cordero's murder trial that he took Cordero home and told him to stay there.
A recorded jail phone call reveals Cordero didn't like it when Mejia testified against him at a preliminary hearing.
"That n**** better hope I never get out of this mother***er or something," Cordero said to his sister. "That n**** better move out of Fresno or something because I'm going to be right back in this mother***er for the same sh**."
Clovis police detective Kedric Anderson said it sounded like a threat from Cordero.
But because of the video, Cordero is in jail now and possibly in custody for the rest of his life.
"It's not often we have a clear video of a murder coupled with a confession," said prosecutor Elana Smith.
Smith says the video makes it clear Cordero had a beef with Luna and then made a plan to kill him and leave town.
Police caught him in Arizona a couple weeks after the murders.
RELATED: Fresno man wanted in connection to deadly Clovis bar shooting arrested in Arizona
He'd cut his mullet and acquired a new gun.
We're not allowed to show Cordero in court during the trial, but he's grown the mullet back now.
He chose not to testify in his trial, but his attorney pointed to Cordero's police interview as he argued for second degree murder or involuntary manslaughter.
"I don't remember nuthin' from that night," Jonathan Richter quoted Cordero as saying. "I was drunk as f***."
Richter says Cordero explained he used drugs and alcohol that night, so he couldn't be in a state of mind to premeditate the murders.
Smith says the video tells a different story.
"I want you to go back and I want you watch this video and I want you to tell me if it looks like Mr. Cordero doesn't know what he's doing," she said.
If the jury convicts him on the most serious counts, Cordero faces a punishment of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
