Gilroy
– Two men on trial for a drive-by shooting took the stand
Wednesday in their own defense and denied their roles in the
gang-related incident 18 months ago.
Israel Enrique Hernandez, 20, the accused shooter, testified
that he did fire a gun at a passing car, as he told police in an
interview shortly after his arrest, but that he did it to scare the
driver who he thought had threatened him previously.
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – Two men on trial for a drive-by shooting took the stand Wednesday in their own defense and denied their roles in the gang-related incident 18 months ago.
Israel Enrique Hernandez, 20, the accused shooter, testified that he did fire a gun at a passing car, as he told police in an interview shortly after his arrest, but that he did it to scare the driver who he thought had threatened him previously.
Juan Jose Hernandez, 23, the accused driver of the car Enrique Hernandez was in, testified that he was not even in the car during the shooting, although he admitted to being a member of the Eighth Street Sureño gang.
The two Gilroy men, who are not related, are charged with attempted murder and firing into an occupied vehicle, with enhancements for using a gun and committing a crime to benefit a street gang.
Prosecutors say Enrique Hernandez sat in the back seat of a Ford Taurus driven by Juan Hernandez the afternoon of Dec. 28, 2003, and recognized an Oldsmobile Cutlass approaching them on Church Street as belonging to a rival Norteño gang member. Just after the car passed, Enrique Hernandez pointed a gun across the roof of the Taurus, toward the Cutlass, and fired three or four times. The bullets became lodged in three separate houses.
Ric G. Squaglia, Enrique Hernandez’s attorney, tried to show that his client’s feud with the driver of the Cutlass was ongoing, although not necessarily gang-related. Enrique Hernandez testified that shots were fired at him at least twice from the car and that it would sometimes drive slowly past his Church Street apartment.
On the day of the shooting, after twice visiting a liquor store near his apartment with Juan Hernandez and another friend, Enrique Hernandez testified two other friends joined them on the third trip to the liquor store, and a man named Miguel drove. Near Sixth and Eigleberry streets, Enrique Hernandez saw a man he knew – a Norteño gang member who was wearing red clothing. The man yelled derogatory names often used by Norteños to refer to Sureños at Hernandez, who got out of the car and threw a glass beer bottle at the man, striking him on his upper back, he testified.
Later, when he saw the Cutlass, “I felt fear and at the same time I felt anger,” he testified through an interpreter. He said he grabbed a .38-caliber gun that Miguel had placed under a front seat of the car – which no one else saw, he admitted under cross-examination – and shot “up in the air” to scare the driver of the car.
But that claim was called into question by Deputy District Attorney Stuart Scott. He asked Enrique Hernandez to use his thumb and forefinger to indicate how he pointed the gun over the roof of the car and “into the air.” Hernandez held up his right hand, his finger pointing nearly parallel to the floor.
Although he told police in an interview after his arrest that Juan Hernandez was driving the car, which a third passenger of the car verified Tuesday, Enrique Hernandez said Wednesday that wasn’t true.
“I made mistakes … because I had been the one that fired the shots and I did not want to see myself in this situation that I’m in right now,” he said through an interpreter. “But I did not feel good about myself … so I told part of the truth.”
As the request of his lawyer, Enrique Hernandez faced the jury and said he was telling the truth.
He denied being a member of the Eighth Street gang, testifying under cross-examination that a gang-related tattoo on his left hand had another meaning, and that he was friends with gang members but not one of them.
Later, Juan Hernandez testified members of the Eighth Street gang initiated him when he was about 16 years old. He said under cross-examination that he never considered himself to be an active member because he was not out “looking for trouble.”
He and a friend hung out outside Enrique Hernandez’s apartment the day of the shooting, he testified. He said he did not see Enrique Hernandez and another friend for about 15 minutes, after which the police came by and impounded the Taurus.
Scott asked Juan Hernandez to confirm that gang members commit crimes, beat people up, and stab people. He also asked if they sometimes shoot people.
“You could say that, too,” Juan Hernandez said.
Both defendants were called as witnesses after Scott rested his case Wednesday morning, following testimony Tuesday from Roland Lopez, who said he was the third person in the Taurus at the time of the shooting. Lopez testified that Juan Hernandez was driving and Enrique Hernandez fire the gun, Scott said. He also presented ballistics evidence that the bullets found in the houses on Church Street were fired from the .38-caliber handgun found in the Taurus.
The trial will continue Friday morning, and is expected to go to the jury on Tuesday.
