Atkins plans to challenge ruling

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

The defense for a 14-year-old Santa Barbara boy charged with murdering a 15-year-old during a March gang brawl plans to file motions with the Superior Court to dismiss a judge’s finding that the accused should stand trial on the charge.
“We intend to challenge decisions that were made at the preliminary hearing both by the judge and the prosecution,” said Jennifer Archer, co-counsel for Ricardo “Ricky” Juarez. “We believe there is substantial, if not overwhelming evidence that Ricardo R. killed [Luis] Angel Linares.”


Juarez has been locked in Santa Barbara County Juvenile Hall since being arrested on March 14, immediately after the gang melee left Linares stabbed to death in the parking lot of Saks Fifth Avenue.
During a 12-day preliminary hearing, which was held last month to discern whether or not sufficient evidence existed to hold Juarez over for trial, the boy’s public defender, Karen Atkins and Archer put on a case that took the focus off their client and and directed it onto Ricardo R.
During that hearing, testimony was given by law enforcement officers, as well as other witnesses who said Juarez was seen with a knife stabbing someone during the fight.
Forensic testing conducted on a knife discovered in a garbage can on State Street showed Linares’ blood on the blade and Juarez’s DNA on the handle, according to witness testimony.
But despite the seemingly damning evidence against Juarez, Atkins presented similar evidence, to the extent she was allowed, that Ricardo R. was also seen with a knife during the fight, admitted to stabbing Linares and was seen by others doing so.
Much of Atkins’ case seemed to hinge on showing a videotaped interrogation of Juarez during the hearing.
But in the early days of the lengthy preliminary hearing, Superior Court Judge Brian Hill ruled that he would not allow the tape to be shown in court, but would instead watch it from home.
On the end of the 12th day of the hearing, when it became clear Hill was ready to stop the hearing and make his decision, Atkins put up a staunch protest and demanded she be allowed to show the videotaped interrogation in court.
After Hill ruled, Atkins said she planned to appeal the court’s decision, which was officially confirmed yesterday.
Senior Deputy District Attorney Hilary Dozer said he is not surprised that Atkins intends to file a motion to dismiss the findings of the preliminary hearing.
“That doesn’t surprise me based on the comments at the end of the preliminary hearing,” Dozer said. “It’s certainly more common in a serious case to have defense council do everything legally possible to put a defendant in the best possible position however that is defined by them.”
Yesterday’s appearance in court was supposed to be for Juarez’s post preliminary hearing arraignment, but that was rescheduled for Oct. 25 in order to give Atkins and Dozer enough time to pour over the roughly 2,000 pages of transcribed testimony from the preliminary hearing.
If a plea is made by Juarez at the Oct. 25 arraignment, a trial would likely begin within 60 days, pinning it to begin in late December.
A separate hearing will likely be held on Sept. 27 where Atkins and Dozer will argue whether or not a subpoena issued to the social networking web site MySpace by the defense, can be legally withheld from the prosecution.
“We’re still doing a lot of investigation,” Atkins said.
Atkins demanded to know yesterday if the District Attorney’s Office has struck any deals with Ricardo R. for his testimony.
“There have been no deals made in return for testimony,” Dozer said. “There is no plea bargain in place.”
Dozer noted that in order to get Ricardo R. to testify during the preliminary hearing, the court had to order him to so, and grant him use immunity for that testimony. Use immunity, according to earlier interviews with Dozer, means the testimony given by Ricardo R. on the stand could not be used against him as long as he told the truth.
But Atkins believes a possible deal was struck in order to go after Juarez and try him as an adult, which is the current course the District Attorney has taken.
But whether the District Attorney has struck a deal or not, the facts as Atkins see them point to Ricardo R. as the killer.
“In any case they’re overlooking overwhelming evidence,” Atkins said. “Ricardo R. is the killer and our client is not.”