The case against four defendants charged with the murder of a
teen just blocks from the Gilroy Police Department was postponed
while defense attorneys sift through a mound of evidence.
The case against four defendants charged with the murder of a teen just blocks from the Gilroy Police Department was postponed while defense attorneys sift through a mound of evidence.
Though they didn’t fire the gun that killed 18-year-old Larry Martinez, Heather Ashford, 19, Robert Barrios, 20, and Angel Solorzano, 19, face conspiracy and murder charges for contributing to the shooting death of their cousin and friend during a clash with a rival gang last November. The fourth defendant, alleged Sureño Cristian Jimenez, 21, also faces a murder charge and a felony gun possession charge for pulling the trigger of the gun that killed Martinez, according to court documents.
Barrios and Solorzano joked casually with each other and even laughed out loud several times while seated in the courthouse jury box, which often doubles as a seating area for defendants in custody. Seated apart from the other male defendants, Jimenez exchanged words with his attorney, a smile occasionally lighting up his face. Unlike past hearings when she broke down into tears, Ashford, who sat the farthest from the onlookers, maintained her composure, her eyes darting back and forth between the judge, her attorney and the courtroom’s gallery.
After a brief discussion with the defendants’ attorneys and Deputy District Attorney Troy Benson, Superior Court Judge Ray Cunningham continued the plea hearing to 9 a.m. Nov. 13 in Department 109 of the South County Courthouse in Morgan Hill.
“We’re still getting discovery,” said Jessica Delgado, Jimenez’s court-appointed attorney. Defense lawyers received 12 discs of evidence just days before the hearing, leading to the postponement, Delgado said.
In November, half an hour before the shooting, Jimenez and two other Sureños who are still at large – Edgardo Centeno and an unnamed juvenile – threw a rock at the car Martinez and Solorzano rode in with Ashford at the wheel, according to police. After a brief discussion, Ashford, Martinez and Solorzano picked up Barrios and returned to confront the Sureños, police said. Armed with a small bat, Martinez and his friends snuck up on the Sureños from behind, provoking the rival gang members to turn and shoot, prosecutors said.
Instead of charging only those Sureños suspected of killing Martinez, District Attorney Dolores Carr used a rarely-invoked rule – the provocative act murder theory – to charge all three of Martinez’s associates for contributing to his death for the benefit of a criminal street gang. Solorzano and Barrios are both Norteño gang members, police said.
In July, Cunningham denied bail requests for each of the defendants.
