(CNS) – Opening arguments are expected Nov. 8 in the trial of a Cathedral City man facing a possible death sentence for allegedly fatally shooting four people in Palm Springs more than two years ago, a District Attorney’s Office spokesperson said Friday.

Jose Larin-Garcia, 22, is charged with four counts of murder stemming from the February 2019 shootings in which the victims, ages 17 to 25, were found dead at two separate locations.

He also faces a special-circumstance allegation of committing multiple murders, opening him to the possible death sentence if convicted.

Jury selection for the trial began this week at the Larson Justice Center in Indio, with opening arguments from the prosecution and defense attorneys expected as early as Nov. 8, according to District Attorney’s Office spokesman John Hall.

Larin-Garcia remains in custody at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside without bail.

According to prosecutors, three of the victims were found inside a Toyota Corolla that crashed at Sunny Dunes and El Placer roads around 11:40 p.m. on Feb. 3, 2019, while the fourth was found 30 minutes later lying in the street about a half-mile away.

During the defendant’s preliminary hearing, Deputy District Attorney Scot Clark said Larin-Garcia was sitting in the back seat of the Corolla when he fatally shot Carlos Campos Rivera, 25, on Canon Drive south of Theresa Drive while the victim was standing next to or leaning inside the car.

The motive for the shooting remains unclear, but Clark speculated at the time that drugs may have been involved.

After that shooting, Clark said, the driver of the Toyota sped off, but Larin-Garcia fatally shot the three other people in the vehicle, then jumped from the moving car before it crashed into a parked Jeep at Sunny Dunes and El Placer roads.

Clark said Larin-Garcia killed the trio because they witnessed the murder of Rivera.

Larin-Garcia “set about methodically killing the only other three people on earth who could describe what had happened out in front of (Rivera’s) apartment building,” the prosecutor said at the time.

Killed inside the car were Jacob Montgomery, 19, Juan Duarte Raya, 18, and Yuliana Garcia, 17, who was driving.

Police testified during the hearing that Larin-Garcia was found by responding officers hiding under a pickup just blocks from the scene of the car crash, and was taken to Desert Regional Medical Center for treatment of various abrasions.

Larin-Garcia then fled from the hospital, where police had been questioning him, and ran to the home of a friend, prosecutors said.

Palm Springs Police Detective Steve Grissom testified during the hearing that the friend went to Larin-Garcia’s mother’s home to retrieve fresh clothing for the suspect and his identification from a wallet. Later in the day, the friend also bought bandages for Larin-Garcia, along with a Greyhound bus ticket to Florida under the name “Joseph Browning,” Grissom testified.

At some point that day, Larin-Garcia shaved his head to change his appearance, then the friend drove him to the Greyhound bus station in Indio, where he was arrested, Grissom testified.

Larin-Garcia has no documented felony convictions in Riverside County.

Trial Nears for Man Facing Possible Death Sentence in Palm Springs Killings