Woman Accused of Killing Thousand Palms Resident Appears in Court

A 30-year-old Arizona woman accused of gunning down another woman at an Indio motel made her initial court appearance Thursday, but did not enter a plea.

Carla Sharese Flores is suspected of fatally shooting 27-year-old Ashley Brito of Thousand Palms at the City Center Motel on March 31.

Along with murder, Flores faces a sentence-enhancing allegation of discharging a firearm causing great bodily injury.

Flores appeared via video conference at the Banning Justice Center before Riverside County Superior Court Judge Alfonso Fernandez, who set the defendant’s bail at $1 million and rescheduled arraignment for Friday at the Larson Justice Center in Indio.

She remains in custody at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning.

Patrol officers responded to the motel, located at 83597 Indio Blvd., about 7:45 p.m. on March 31 to investigate reports of a woman who had been found dead, according to the Indio Police Department.

Police identified Flores as the suspected shooter and obtained a warrant for her arrest, police said. It was not clear how they pinpointed her as a suspect.

On Monday, officers responded to a disturbance call at a motel in El Centro and arrested her on unrelated charges, police said.

Flores allegedly gave officers a false identity at the time of the arrest, but El Centro Police Department investigators confirmed her identity and learned of the arrest warrant in Indio.

Indio police detectives retrieved Flores from the Herbert Hughes Correctional Center in El Centro and returned her to Indio for questioning, and later booked her on suspicion of murder, police said.

A motive in the shooting has not been made public.

Flores has no documented felony convictions in Riverside County.

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