Orange County prosecutors say a UPS employee on disability leave tracked down a longtime friend and co-worker on his delivery route in Irvine, then opened fire beside the truck on May 16, 2024, killing the driver and setting off a manhunt.
The case drew intense attention in Orange County because investigators quickly said it was not a robbery or random street crime, but an alleged ambush carried out in broad daylight against a driver working a familiar route in a business district. Rhean Jalipa Fontanoza, 46, was charged with murder and special-circumstance allegations in the death of 50-year-old Expedito Cuesta De Leon. Prosecutors said the two men were childhood friends and co-workers. Even after charges were filed, officials said one of the most basic questions remained unanswered: what set the killing in motion.
According to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, the sequence that prosecutors believe led to the shooting began around 12:30 p.m. on May 16, 2024. They said Fontanoza stopped another UPS driver and asked whether a route belonged to De Leon. After learning De Leon was working a different route that day, prosecutors said, Fontanoza went to the UPS substation in Aliso Viejo, accessed a computer that showed delivery assignments and took a photo of the screen with his phone. Prosecutors said he had been on disability leave and was scheduled to return to work on June 1, 2024. Just before 3 p.m., they said, he located De Leon in Irvine while driving a newer vehicle that De Leon would not recognize. De Leon had stepped out to make a delivery, returned to the truck and buckled his seat belt when the gunfire began. District Attorney Todd Spitzer said De Leon was “just going about his day” when he was attacked. Irvine police officers arrived near Chrysler and Fleming and found him slumped over in the driver’s seat. Officers pulled him from the vehicle and tried life-saving measures, but he died at the scene.
Investigators said surveillance footage became a key early piece of evidence. Irvine police said video captured a silver Honda Ridgeline pulling alongside the UPS truck and then fleeing on Goodyear toward Jeronimo. Police described the pickup as a four-door truck with a black bed liner and black rims. What officers first knew at the scene was limited but important: the driver had suffered multiple gunshot wounds, nothing suggested a robbery, and the shooting appeared targeted. Prosecutors later added the detail that 14 shots were fired in 19 seconds and that 10 rounds hit De Leon. Witnesses and nearby workers told local television stations they heard a rapid burst of gunfire that cut through what had been a routine afternoon in an industrial area where delivery trucks regularly stop. People who worked nearby also recognized De Leon as a familiar presence on that route. Kevin Sanchez, who worked at a nearby business, told FOX 11 that De Leon had delivered there for years and came across as a “friendly gentleman.” Authorities have disclosed no public account of recent threats, a falling out or another specific trigger, leaving the motive outside the public record even as the prosecution laid out what it described as a planned attack.
The public picture of the case sharpened in stages over the first several days. On the afternoon of the shooting, Irvine police said only that the killing looked targeted and that the victim and suspect appeared to be acquaintances. By the time prosecutors announced charges, they described a much closer relationship, saying the men had been childhood friends as well as co-workers. That shift changed how the case was understood. What first looked like a deadly attack on a delivery driver during a workday became, in the charging papers and public statements, an alleged stalking and ambush case built around route information, surveillance video and a brief but violent encounter beside a brown delivery truck. The setting added to the shock. The truck was parked in a business district that witnesses described as ordinary and safe, a place where drivers stop, unload packages and move on. In the days after the shooting, family members, co-workers and friends publicly mourned De Leon, and colleagues helped organize a fundraiser for his family and a public viewing in Mission Viejo. UPS said its hearts were heavy over the loss of one of its drivers and later called the circumstances highly unusual. The company said the killing did not reflect the culture or camaraderie of its workforce and that it was providing support and counseling to employees affected by the shooting.
The legal case moved quickly at first, even as the larger explanation lagged behind. Prosecutors said Fontanoza was charged with murder with special-circumstance allegations of shooting from a vehicle and murder by lying in wait. He was also accused of personally discharging a firearm causing death. The district attorney’s office identified the case as 24CF1302 and said Senior Deputy District Attorney Lexie Elliott of the Homicide Unit would handle the prosecution. At the time charges were announced, prosecutors said Fontanoza was being held without bail. They also said the special-circumstance allegations made him eligible for the death penalty if he is convicted. In California, however, executions remain halted under a statewide moratorium and the execution chamber has been closed since 2019. In practical terms, the case still depended on evidence that had not yet been tested in a public trial setting, including route records, digital evidence tied to the UPS substation computer, surveillance footage, ballistics work and whatever investigators could establish about motive. Public reports reviewed through Sunday, March 8, 2026, did not show a later plea, trial verdict or sentencing outcome. That leaves the next clear milestone outside the public reporting already available, with no readily visible end point yet reflected in the accounts reviewed for this article.
The chase that followed the shooting gave the case another set of vivid images. Police said the Orange County Sheriff’s Department spotted a vehicle matching the suspect truck shortly before 4 p.m. on Santiago Canyon Road. Hours after the killing, television footage showed armored vehicles boxing in the pickup near Santiago Canyon Road and Chapman Avenue, while additional officers took positions on a hillside above the scene. Authorities said Fontanoza refused commands to get out. By about 6:15 p.m., officers were seen deploying chemical agents into the vehicle, and a police dog was sent in before officers pulled him out after a short struggle and arrested him. For people who knew De Leon, those tactical scenes stood in sharp contrast to the man they described. Nearby workers remembered him as the UPS driver who came through on schedule and kept moving. Co-workers described a dependable colleague whose death left the route, and the workplaces around it, suddenly marked by grief. The most haunting detail in prosecutors’ account was also one of the simplest: they said De Leon was still buckled into his seat and still had his scanner in his hand. That image, of an ordinary workday ending inside a truck parked on a familiar street, has remained at the center of the public understanding of the case.
Nearly two years later, the public record remains defined by what authorities say they can prove about planning and by what they still have not explained about motive. As of Sunday, March 8, 2026, no readily visible public report reviewed for this article showed a final court outcome, leaving Orange County court proceedings as the next place where the case could meaningfully move.
Author note: Last updated March 8, 2026.