Fabian Nilo is sentenced 36 years to life for stabbing, murdering victims in Tulare
PORTERVILLE – A Tulare County judge handed down a life sentence to a convicted killer, last week.
The Tulare County District Attorney’s Office announced last week that Fabian Nilo, 27, was sentenced 36 years to life in prison for a murder he committed in 2019.
According to the DA’s office, at approximately 1:45 a.m. on May 21, 2019, the Tulare Police Department officers were dispatched to Howard and Alpine by an adult male who advised he had been stabbed. When officers arrived, they found the victim in pain and struggling to breathe. He reported that he had been jumped by a group and stabbed in the ribs. The victim was transported to Kaweah Delta where he succumbed to his injuries. The victim had been stabbed three times in the upper torso.
Detectives discovered partial surveillance video from Mulcahy Middle School that recorded a confrontation between the victim and two defendants, Nilo and Cesar Lemus, 25. Through investigation, detectives determined an additional two defendants were involved in the incident and aftermath, Kayla Easter, 31, Aaliyah Raygoza, 24, and Kayla Bernal, 28.
On April 23 of this year, a jury convicted Nilo of second-degree murder with the special allegations that he used a deadly weapon and possessed a prior strike and felony conviction of robbery in 2012.
In July 2021, a jury convicted Easter of voluntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon. She was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Sept. 1. Lemus pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 11 years in Jan. 2020. Raygoza pleaded no contest in late 2019 to assault with the special allegation of causing great bodily injury, and two counts of misdemeanor obstruction. She was sentenced to a 5-year suspended sentence and probation. In 2019, Bernal pleaded no contest to accessory after the fact and was sentenced to a three-year suspended term and one year in jail.
