Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Witness refuses to testify in Juarez case

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

As the murder trial of a 15-year-old Santa Barbara boy stretches toward the one-month mark, witnesses have continued to express reluctance while testifying, with the most recent example coming yesterday, when a juvenile refused to take the stand.
The boy, also 15, who was present at the March 14 gang brawl where 15-year-old Luis Angel Linares was stabbed to death in broad daylight, apparently was told he would be killed if he testified, according to his attorney.

Although the boy wouldn’t testify, defense counsel for Ricardo “Ricky” Juarez, who is being tried as an adult for allegedly killing Linares, was able to read statements the boy posted on the Web site MySpace.com.
The messages said a boy named Ricardo R., who was also arrested in connection with the 2007 gang fight, admitted to stabbing and killing Linares.
Juarez’s defense counsel, being headed up by Deputy Public Defender’s Karen Atkins and Jennifer Archer, have long maintained Ricardo R., also known by his gang moniker as “Stomper,” was responsible for inflicting the fatal stab wound.
As such, the duo have wasted little time directing the focus of their case upon the boy, who is currently in custody at juvenile hall, and is expected to take the witness stand today.
However, because the 15-year-old witness refused to take the stand yesterday, the defense was hampered in its effort to question the boy about statements he made to law enforcement about Ricardo R’s involvement.
Atkins told Superior Court Judge Brian Hill outside the presence of the jury that she feels the court should either hold the boy in contempt of court and force him to testify, or take some other measure to ensure the things the boy knows and said to law enforcement are presented to the jury.
Hill said he was reluctant to hold the boy in contempt of court in part because of the immense fear he showed yesterday.
“There’s no question in the court’s mind he was reluctant to testify,” Hill said. “You’re asking the court to take someone who’s fearful, crying on the stand, to put them in custody and force them to testify.
“I don’t think if I held him in custody for two months he’d testify.”
While that may or may not be the case, Atkins said the court also should be conscious of protecting her client’s right to a fair trial, and allow all the evidence that may exist to be presented to the jury.
Hill said he felt he did this by allowing the MySpace statement into evidence, which said in part, according to the judge, that “Ricardo R. told him he shanked him.”
Though Archer said this evidence is integral to Juarez’s defense, also telling are the boy’s statements to police, which provided extensive insight into Ricardo R’s whereabouts during the gang fight.
She said the boy was the only witness to see Ricardo R. in the parking lot behind Saks Fifth Avenue standing above the body of Linares, who collapsed and died in a planter.
The defense has insisted that, although Juarez was seen by witnesses swinging a knife at Linares in the intersection of State and Carrillo Streets, he was never anywhere near the back of Saks, where they say the fatal wound was inflicted.
And apparently the one person who has the ability to shed some light on the matter won’t speak.
His reluctance may be understandable. An 18-year-old witness for the prosecution that testified on Aug. 19 was nearly killed days before he was scheduled to take the stand. In a brutal attack caught on surveillance videotape, the witness was chased through a courtyard at an upper State Street hotel and tackled into a planter. Three suspects, one wielding a knife, pummeled the man, who suffered from a punctured lung and severe cuts to his face.
According to Santa Barbara Police reports, the witness was a suspected Eastside gang member. The reports showed one of those who attacked him was also an Eastside gang member, the same gang authorities allege Juarez belongs to.
Atkins said she’s hopeful the court will either force the 15-year-old witness to testify, or allow the evidence to go before the jury some other way — a possibility Senior Deputy District Attorney Hilary Dozer, the prosecutor, will likely object to.
“I think he knows that our client is going down for something that someone else did,” Atkins said of the witness. “[The judge has] got to come up with an alternative so our client doesn’t suffer for it.”

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

The authorities know the truth behind this murder. Do the right thing and prosecute the right person. Send a message to the gangs in SB that they don't run things. If the wrong kid is convicted, it will prove who rules by lies and intimidation; The Gangs.

Anonymous said...

just get all the gang bangers and their parents together. ship them all back to mexico where they belong. this is a cultural thing. this is not what makes the US a great country. we don't need vermin like this here. send them back to where they came from. let them destroy their own country.

Anonymous said...

Thats a racist comment. Most gang memebers were born in this country! get your facts straight.

Anonymous said...

the truth hurt? who cares if the losers were born here. chances are the parents are illegal. send them all back.

Anonymous said...

lets not forget that its the parents who messed up here. lets revise your statement: round up all the parents of the gang kids, ship those parents to some hell-hole to rot and stick the kids in a new world where they can be supervised and rehabilitated and brought up to be community leaders. does not matter what race they are or if they are illegal or not.

Anonymous said...

what do you mean who cares !
we should all be concerned KIDS ARE OUR FUTURE WE MUST PAY ATTENTION TO THEM NOW OR ELSE WELL NEVER FIGURE THEM OUT!

RICKY DIDNT DO IT!
ISNT THERE ENOUGH OVERWHELMING EVIDENCE TO SHOIW THAT THIS OTHER BOY INFLICTED THE FATAL WOUND! AND CAUSED ANGELS FATALITY

Anonymous said...

if you don't like who lives here in sb, then why don't you move!!! quit your whining about sending here or there... and you go back!!!

Anonymous said...

I do not claim to understand the gang culture or know of a solution, but it seems that many new immigrant groups form gangs. Do to the proximity of certain countries to our south with poor economic opportunities, there is a constant stream of new immigrants. It appears that, in most cases, by the time you get to the second generation born in the US, gang activity starts to disappear.

Same thing with learning English. Most of the other immigrant groups came in one big wave so it was more obvious but almost every "Mexican" I have met whose parents were born here speaks fluent English and poor spanish. I am the grandchild of an Asian immigrant (my parent was NOT a member of a gang but this immigrant group was associated with gangs)

I also think it is wrong to prosecute a 14 yo as an adult. There is a reason you need to be 16 to drive, 18 to vote and 21 to drink. The teenage brain is heavy on the accelerator and slow on the break.

My proposed solution would be to have a category of crimes where they are found guilty with the "mental disease) of being immature. They could be committed to a facility for a minimum time and a maximum time until rehabilitated. If this never occurs than they are incarcerated for the adult maximum.

Anonymous said...

I agree with the last comment. This case has no business being prosecuted in adult court. He was barely 14. Kids are not 'short adults.' Their brains are not fully developed. The parts of the brain responsible for reasoning and decision-making do not fully develop until the mid-twenties. And for those of us who have survived our teens and early 20's, I'm sure we can remember all of the stupid and rash things we did.

We throw kids away for the rest of their lives and make no effort to even try and rehabilitate them. The United States is one of only a handful of countries that incarcerate children for life without parole. The last numbers I found were: the US had approximately 2300 kids serving life without parole sentences. About 60% of those kids were first time offenders- we never even tried to rehabilitate them. Of the few other countries that sentence kids to life without parole, the numbers of kids currently serving life sentences is in the single or double digits. The way we treat children in the US criminal justice system is horrendous.

Anonymous said...

sorry, but a 14 year old little gang banger should be charged as an adult. I do not want this loser roaming the streets again when he turns 25. these little thugs go to prison, and become little soldiers for La Eme. by the time they get out, they are solidly engrossed, and are a bigger threat. these losers need to rot in prison, or be given the needle.

Anonymous said...

first of all the only reason there is gangs is because of the white culture of the pass that did not allow mexicans to suceed not just mexican, but black people the only reason gangs exist is because mexicans and blacks where watching out for themselves from the white race im not rasist or anything, my girl is white im just saying people that are rasist and saying that mexicans should go back to mexico, do not know what the hell they are talking about, and why are you putting yourself anonymous dont you have the balls to show who you are. by rvrios11

Anonymous said...

rvrios11, I would really like to know how it is that mexicans and blacks are in gangs because of whites. I don't know any whites in gangs, they probably exist here and there but I am doubtful that they are out terrorizing all the mexican and black kids who then need to join gangs for safety. There are plenty of jobs here for kids, I just don't understand why there are people who would choose violence, intimidation, fear, drugs, crime, etc, over working a decent job, getting an education and having a career. I know plenty of latino people who make good money. I think the gang thing is part machismo, part laziness (as in lack of drive to work hard and ethically for what you want), part low self-esteem, and part anger. I think it is also part vicious cycle... like how an abused child usually continues the abuse with others when s/he grows up. I can't see how a father who loves his son would ever bring him into a gang. It would be like a drug addict shooting up his son with heroin. It is abusive. It is dysfunctional love.

Anna

Anonymous said...

KKK, Hells Angels and we all know the story of Jesse James Hollywood. "... FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR ALL..." Everyone who immigrated to America came for the promise of freedom. Yes, we all immigrated (except for the natives) Where is our freedom? Our America is racism, hate, and lies.

Anonymous said...

im not saying that the white people of this decade are resposible, im just tellinhg you what happen in the past like in the 1840's when immagrants came to U.S.A looking for a better life, but they where having hard times doing that, because the white race thinking they where superior then the rest and thats when gangs became known, its because they where protecting themselves, from other people that where trying to put immagrant down. and from then gangs have never stopped existing, its like cancer, there is no cure, and that what is happening now, and people do not know that gang where a cause from the past future and now people know that not having equal opportunity can turn deadly. rvrios11

Anonymous said...

what about the arian brother hood gang, its one of the most well known whtite gangs. they are known to bring drugs to this country.now you know, and yes i believe that america is filled with lies, and some people are rasist, and people have hate because they do not want to see an immagrant succeed, and be better then what they are. Rvrios

Anonymous said...

also for the people that are whinning about gangs, why dont you just stop whinning and forget about it because you probably live in a nice neighborhood, and you do not see what really is going on ,and plus gangs are not bothering you are they, they dont go over to your neighborhood and bother you do they "no". leave this problem to the people that really care. Rvrios11

Anonymous said...

So where are the arian gangs here? Rvrios11 you talk about the past and I can understand the influence, but the 15 year olds involved in this weren't there, probably neither were their parents. It was the stories passed down that they are influenced by, yes? Well shit my great-great-grandfather had it extremely hard when he immigrated to New York. He and his family experienced racism and hate crimes. I don't hold that against my neighbors in SB and join a gang though. If that is your argument then I say you are using that to create a victim consciousness to justify what is happening here these days.

I don't see any Jewish gangs. I don't see any Native American gangs and they as a people in particular have been repeatedly screwed over, and still to this day.

So if we took that part out of the argument, then what else is left? That's what I would like to look at.

Anna

Anonymous said...

Anna u are so ignorant you dont want to see what is really happening today,i know that the 15 year old wasnt there in the past i know, but what we did in the past influence us today, and people do not want to admit that today.why do you think they do not legalize marijuana its because its a drug that makes mexicans and african americans get crazy, and thats a fact i read in a book, and guess when they wrote this fact, it was during rasism days, when immagrants where trying to have a better life, the same with immagrants they think immagrants are going to get crazy once they are legalize, but i guees i cant get that through your head because you are ignorant

Anonymous said...

Anna- there were Jewish gangs. Do a google search of Murder Incorporated. Jewish gang in Brooklyn in the 1940's, whose primary acticity was assasinating people for the Italian mob. I'm not a sociologist, but I would guess that as groups of immigrants become more assimilated into American culture, become more prosperous, and are given more opportunities, their criminal activity and/or need for affiliation with a gang decreases. If we want to decrease gang involvement of young kids, first and foremost, we need to start improving our schools. That's a longer discussion.