A San Diego man is accused of stalking his ex-girlfriend for more than a year after a judge rejected her request for a restraining order ― and then killing his ex’s fiancé.
Prosecutors say Jesse Milton Alvarez was spurred by jealousy when he carefully planned the fatal shooting of Mario Fierro, a beloved teacher.
When Fierro proposed to Amy Gembara, a fellow teacher at Cathedral Catholic High School, in December 2020, he couldn’t know that her “jealous, obsessive and possessive ex-boyfriend would methodically plot his execution,” prosecutors recently said in opening statements for Alvarez’s murder trial.
Fierro did know that Alvarez, now 33, had allegedly been stalking Gembara since their breakup in September 2019, after three years of dating. School security officials had escorted Alvarez off campus several times, but he and Fierro had never met face to face — until the morning of Feb. 1, 2021, when Alvarez shot him six times in front of his home as Fierro, 37, was preparing to leave for work.
Alvarez was arrested at his home that evening, and later pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, which includes a special circumstance allegation of lying in wait. Prosecutors declined to pursue the death penalty.
Chilling audio of the shooting, recorded by neighbors’ security cameras, was played in court on Feb. 26, the first day of Alvarez’s trial. The first shot was followed by a scream, then silence as five more shots rang out on the North Park residential street.
Alvarez targeted Fierro after he saw a picture of him and Gembara in a social media post by the high school on Dec. 21, 2020, congratulating the couple on their engagement, prosecutors said.
Fierro taught social studies, coached the cross-country team and was the football team’s assistant coach.
Six weeks after the engagement post, Alvarez drove his brother’s car to Fierro’s…
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