Grand jurors were told the cell phone of a White defendant charged with the Feb. 1 shooting death of a Black man in Moreno Valley contained files with racial slurs about African Americans, along with the phrases “white power,” and “Hail Hitler,” a transcript of testimony shows. The panel voted in August to indict Darren Peter Zesk, 19, with the first-degree murder of Massai Cole, along with special circumstances that the slaying was a hate crime, and that it was committed while lying in wait for the victim, an 18-year-old June 2019 graduate of Ventura High School. Zesk`s nephew, Jared Lee Zesk,19, is also charged with Cole`s slaying, but not with the special circumstances. Both are White and...
|
