Loyce Weaver
SANTA CLARA – According to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, a 28-year-old San Jose man was convicted of the first-degree murder of a 19-year-old stranger this week in what is being described as a hate crime.
Per witness reports, Loyce Weaver felt that the man gave him a strange look as he drove past.
Weaver was convicted of murder after witnesses remember him saying, “Shouldn’t have looked at me that way.” Weaver now faces a sentence of less than 50 years to life.
Prosecuting attorney Angela Bernhard of the Santa Clara District Attorney’s Office said, “This was a particularly senseless murder that robbed a young man of his life and left his family devastated.”
Court records detail how on the night of January 14, 2014, the victim, Jesus Granados, and a group of his friends were partying at the Executive Inn in Milpitas. After witnessing a fistfight break out at the party, Granados went outside to talk with a friend when Weaver drove past in a stolen car.
Weaver, already a known drug dealer, was there to sell the car. That is when he seemed to drive dangerously close to Granados and his friend.
According to witnesses, Weaver continued on for another 30 or 40 feet before stopping, then stepped out of the vehicle and fired four times at the victim and three of his friends. One of the bullets struck the victim in the back of his neck, killing him instantly.
According to police records, “On January 14, 2014, at 10:33 P.M., Milpitas Police Department officers responded to the Executive Inn, located at 95 Dempsey Road, regarding a possible shooting”. When officers arrived they found Granados shot in the face and was found dead at the scene.
Weaver will be sentenced on February 26, 2015.
