‘So surreal.’ Family mourns Visalia grandmother of 20 killed allegedly by renter in her home

A 74-year-old woman who subleased a room in her Visalia home might have suffered a cruel death at the hands of a roommate who lived with her for only a few months.

Family members of Rafaela Espindola remain in mourning following her Feb. 20 death and said they still are trying to understand what would’ve caused her roommate Michael Major to allegedly kill the grandmother of 20 grandkids.

Major, 54, was charged with one count of murder with the special allegations of use of a deadly weapon, sexual assault by force, assault with chemicals, as well as a hate crime, according to the Tulare County District’s Attorney’s Office.

“What’s really sad is one of the last things she’d told us about her roommate was that (Major) seemed like a nice man, and she was trying to help get him back on his feet,” granddaughter Yenizel Rizzo said. “She said she’d cooked for him and told us he enjoyed her food.

“My grandmother was a quiet person and kept to herself. But she also was a loving woman and would try to take care of those around her. Then this happened.”

Major faces additional charges from a separate assault when he allegedly attacked a restaurant employee with a 10-inch sledgehammer. He faces hate crime charges from that incident, too.

Blood found in hallway

Police said that after apprehending Major and questioning him about the brutal restaurant attack inside Nash’s Steakhouse in Visalia, he told officers to check a home on the 500 block of North Stevenson Street.

The location is where Major lived the past two to three months with Espindola, along with a third roommate who is 80-plus years old, according to the victim’s family.

Rizzo said her family found a lot of blood in the hallway that connected her grandmother’s master bedroom to Major’s subleased room.

A criminal complaint stated that Espindola was beaten to death with a hammer.

Espindola, who is originally from Mexico and lived in Visalia for roughly the past 40 years, had sublet a room out of her home to various people for many years to help her cover rent on the entire home. And she rarely, if ever, had issues before.

But by subleasing to Major, “she rented a room to a man who unknowingly to her, had mental issues, and was murdered by him,” according to the family’s post on GoFundMe page that was set up to help pay for her funeral costs.

“My grandmother wasn’t the type to run a background check,” Rizzo said. “She really didn’t look at people’s past like that. She took people for who they were at the time and mostly just kept to herself.”

Hate speech written on papers

Despite having roommates and a small home, Rizzo still hosted family from out of town for many holidays.

“If she had us come over, she’d make sure to go to the market and she’d cook fresh goat for us,” Rizzo recalled. “She also lived next to an orange orchard and gave us oranges all the time.

“Just a very caring person.”

While family wasn’t sure exactly how Espindola got connected with Major, Rizzo said her grandmother usually found roommates over the years based on recommendations from those she knew.

In regards to the third roommate’s whereabouts during Espindola’s death, Rizzo said the family was told by police that the elderly man was not at home at the time of the incident.

Rizzo said it was later discovered that Major had notes and journals inside his room.

Some had bible scripture written or referenced God, including a note that was hanging from a ceiling fan in Major’s room that read “Only God can judge me,” according to Rizzo.

Rizzo said there also was hate speech written on some papers.

Perhaps what made Espindola’s death all the more upsetting was the fact that she had just battled breast cancer and was recovering from chemotherapy treatment, according to family.

“She was just trying to get back to her normal life,” Rizzo said. “That alone was really scary for our family. What we’re dealing with now, it’s just so surreal.

“You’re sad. You’re scared. You’re upset.”

If convicted on all charges, Major faces life in prison.