Trial begins for four in Good Hope murder

By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer | Monday, April 30, 2007 9:38 PM PDT ∞

FRENCH VALLEY ---- Four years ago, a man was shot in the face and killed in the parking lot of a Good Hope market.

On Monday, opening statements kicked off the trial of four suspected Lake Elsinore gang members who have been charged with the April 26, 2003, murder of Valentin Romero.

The trial is being heard by three juries, somewhat unusual in Riverside County and something that has never happened at Southwest Justice Center, which opened in 2003 in French Valley.

Enrique Guzman Ortega, 28, and Ruben Anthony Aguirre, 25, each have separate juries while Mario Jose Hernandez, 25, and Jose Alfonso Urrutia, 21 ---- who are cousins ---- share a third jury.

The decision was made to have multiple juries as some evidence or testimony may be admissible for one defendant but not another.

Overseeing the three-jury trial is Judge Judith Clark, who is responsible for making sure the right jury hears only the right testimony.

Deputy District Attorney Dan Detienne presented his opening statement to each of the three juries Monday, beginning each one by telling jurors that the particular defendant is a gang member.

The prosecutor then detailed why, describing combinations of how each of them had previously admitted being part of the gang and showing jurors photographs of the defendants "throwing" gang signs with other known gang members.

It is The Californian's policy, under most circumstances, to not identify the names of criminal street gangs.

Detienne also outlined for each jury the prosecution's theory of what happened the evening Romero was shot to death, with one round of a 9mm semiautomatic handgun piercing his face just below the left side of his mouth.

While all four defendants have been charged with Romero's murder, the prosecution believes Ortega was the one who actually fired the fatal shot.

It all happened, the prosecutor said, because Romero "mad dogged" the gang members in a Ford van belonging to Aguirre. "Mad dogging," Detienne explained, is staring at or not respecting a gang member.

"In gang culture, respect is everything," Detienne said.

Hernandez got out of the van, he said, and asked Romero, "What's up?" gang slang for challenging someone to a fight.

Romero then picked up a large chunk of asphalt and threw it at Hernandez, hitting him on the left leg, Detienne said.

By doing that, the prosecutor said, Romero "signed his own death warrant."

Disrespecting the gang requires immediate action, and Ortega reacted by pulling a gun and shooting Romero, Detienne said.

"Because Mr. Romero had the temerity to stand up to Mr. Hernandez, he paid the ultimate price. Mr. Ortega shot him," Detienne said.

Both the van and a Mercury Cougar driven by Ortega then sped away, the Cougar crashing and being abandoned a short distance away.

Inside the car, authorities found a photo album containing gang pictures, along with Ortega's birth certificate and Social Security card.

Ortega has also been charged with four other counts of attempted murder involving two separate Lake Elsinore shootings, one in March 2003 and one in April 2003.

In May 2003, a search of a home in Perris turned up the 9mm handgun authorities say was used in all the shootings, including Romero's murder.

Detienne told jurors Monday that shell casings left behind at all three crime scenes ---- and the bullet removed from Romero's head ---- match that handgun.

According to the prosecutor, a woman will testify that Ortega asked her if he could hide the gun there.

Ortega's attorney, James Bender, told his client's jury that there is no dispute that the gun was used in all the shootings.

"But the evidence also is going to show that's not Mr. Ortega's gun," Bender said.

Bender said that gang weapons often are not owned by individuals, but are more like community property, used by anyone in the gang who wants to.

Bender added that law enforcement officials found a hair in a pouch used to hold a clip of bullets for the gun, and also swabbed the gun for DNA evidence.

"You are going to hear (the hair and DNA evidence) was destroyed and never tested," Bender told his jury. "My experts never had a chance to test it."

In another precursor to the testimony he expects jurors will hear, Bender told the jury that it was someone from the van that fired the shot that killed Romero.

"Nobody's going to put him as the shooter," Bender said of Ortega.

Scott O'Meara, the defense attorney for Hernandez, told his jury that his client is on trial "not for what he did, but for who he was with."

Hernandez is only charged with the murder of Romero, not with either of the Lake Elsinore shootings.

O'Meara called Hernandez a victim, not a murderer, saying that he was the one who was hit with the chunk of asphalt in an unprovoked attack by Romero.

He said the common denominator in all of this is Ortega.

"He was the shooter in every incident," O'Meara said of Ortega. "He, and he alone, should be held responsible."

That same jury heard Jeff Zimel, Urrutia's attorney, say his client was entirely uninvolved.

"What did Jose Urrutia do?" Zimel asked. "You will come to realize Mr. Urrutia did nothing. Not one thing."

He never challenged anyone to a fight, Zimel told them, nor did he aid or abet anyone with any criminal act.

Urrutia is charged not only with Romero's murder, but also the two attempted murders in Lake Elsinore.

"The law says the mere presence at the scene of a crime is not enough to be convicted of that crime," Zimel told the jury.

Urrutia was a 16-year-old high school student when these three shootings happened, Zimel said.

"He may not have had the best friends ... but he's not a murderer," Zimel said.

"You can't find him guilty just for being at the scene of these crimes ... or for associating with Mr. Ortega," the defense attorney told jurors.

Aguirre's attorney, Karen Lockhart, told her client's jury about how he ran away from home at age 13 to get away from violence in his home. He then became involved with the gang, but later tried to get out.

"You are going to hear how things changed," Lockhart said, adding that Aguirre went through a gang tattoo removal program, altering or removing some of his tattoos.

"He wanted to become inactive," she told them. "He considered himself inactive."

Aguirre even moved to Riverside to get away from the gang, getting a job and moving in with his girlfriend, the defense attorney said.

He is charged only with the murder of Romero, not in the other shootings.

Aguirre was at the scene of the fatal shooting four years ago because he had been at a wedding reception earlier that day and went to go visit a friend with Hernandez, she said.

Lockhart told jurors that her client later had a conversation with Ortega, who admitted that he fired the shot that killed Romero.

The trial continues with the first day of evidence and testimony today and is expected to last up to six weeks.

Contact staff writer John Hall at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com.