The State - News from June 26, 1988

Moments after he was convicted in Riverside of a double murder, an enraged defendant hurled a pitcher at a prosecutor, soaking him with water. Saying, “Man I didn’t do it,” Joe Daniel Contreras, 28, jumped from the counsel table Friday and flung the pitcher toward Deputy Dist. Atty. Brian McCarville. The pitcher missed McCarville by about a foot and struck the table. It shattered, sending jurors to their hands and knees. Contreras was subdued by court officers, while spectators started shouting. Contreras faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for the killings of Robert Pena, 29, of Riverside, and 13-month-old Daniel Bedolla Jr. The two were killed by gunfire as they sat in a car on the night of May 10, 1987. The child’s mother, Yvette Marie Navarrete, 19, was wounded.