FALLBROOK, CALIFORNIA — Michael Anthony Burke, 70, was charged Thursday with murder, attempted murder, and shooting into an inhabited vehicle following the fatal shooting of landscaper Martin Lucas Esteban at a Fallbrook, California vacation rental Monday evening. Burke pleaded not guilty to the charges and was being held without bail in the San Diego County Vista Detention Facility.
The shooting occurred at about 8 p.m. Monday following an argument, according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Office. Esteban was killed and a second man was treated for a gunshot injury and subsequently released from the hospital.
Cellphone video of the incident shows a man holding a shotgun and standing next to a pickup truck. The video shows the man with the shotgun pointing it into the truck's cabin and a passenger grabbing the barrel. In the video, the man with the gun threatens the men in the truck.
Each of the charges carries a recommended sentence of 25 years to life upon conviction, according to the criminal complaint. Investigators are aware of the cellphone video and prosecutors have reviewed it, according to a Sheriff's Office spokesperson.
Burke is a caretaker for an adjacent property and lives on the parcel where the incident occurred, according to a property owner. The property where the shooting occurred is a vacation rental.
Esteban was an immigrant from Guatemala who had been working at a property in Fallbrook before the shooting. "My father didn't deserve to die," said Martina Lucas, Esteban's daughter. She said her father was invited to the property to help a friend with landscaping.
Alan Hsu, a property owner, said Martin Lucas had worked at the property before and that Burke appeared angry and was not friendly. In the cellphone video, the man with the gun can be heard saying, "I got mucho friends in the policia, highway patrol. That's all right. You wanna die today?" and "I will kill you right now. Don't f--- with me. OK?"
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