Jose Hernandez, a 47-year-old man, was killed alongside his wife in their San Francisco home on August 13, 2022. He and Yessenia Soto Hernandez, age 41, were parents to a young daughter. Yessenia’s niece later described her as "the heart of our family" who "has always kept us together."
In the early morning hours, at approximately 2:30 a.m., the couple was asleep in their home in the Bayview district when Jose’s son, 23-year-old Irvin Hernandez-Flores, broke in.
Prosecutors said Hernandez-Flores, a U.S. Marines veteran, climbed over a locked security fence to gain entry. He then went into his father and stepmother's bedroom and opened fire on the sleeping couple. Their 11-year-old daughter was in the home at the time and witnessed the killings.
San Francisco police officers arrived at the home around 2:45 a.m. and found both victims suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. According to prosecutors, Jose Hernandez was shot five times and died at the scene. Yessenia Soto Hernandez was shot six times and was transported to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead. After the shooting, Hernandez-Flores used his phone to livestream the crime scene in a profanity-laced video.
Hernandez-Flores was arrested and charged with two counts of murder and burglary. In a jailhouse interview, he admitted to the shootings but claimed he had been heavily intoxicated and did not remember all the details. He said his father woke up and charged at him in the dark, and that his stepmother was unintentionally caught in the crossfire. He also admitted to shooting his father again after turning on the lights to "stop his suffering." The District Attorney’s office, however, called the crimes "clearly premeditated," stating that in the livestream video Hernandez-Flores appeared "proud and happy with himself."
Irvin Hernandez-Flores was later convicted of two counts of second-degree murder for the deaths of Jose Hernandez and Yessenia Soto Hernandez. "This horrific crime left a young woman without her parents and rocked a community," District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said in a statement following the verdict. As of his conviction, Hernandez-Flores was scheduled to be sentenced in February 2024.
