Jurors will decide whether man attempted to commit murder or
not
San Martin – After this morning’s rebuttal by Deputy District Attorney Stuart Scott, jurors will have to decide if a 22-year-old Gilroy man attempted to commit murder in two separate incidents, or if he just made bad choices and was trying to defend himself, in one case, and an innocent bystander in another.
Anthony Aguilera is on trial for charges of attempted murder in the stabbing of Scott Bargar, 24, at the Extended Stay America in Morgan Hill on Jan. 26, 2005, and the Oct. 23, 2004, shooting incident in the parking lot of a Gilroy liquor store.
Bargar was seriously wounded in the stabbing, but survived. No one was injured in the shooting, although police reports indicate as many as six shots may have been fired, with four striking a truck with four people inside.
Scott told jurors in his closing argument Thursday afternoon that their duty was clear.
“By the grace of God, we don’t have three dead bodies,” he said, pointing out the positions of the bullet holes in the truck in police photos on a large projection screen in the courtroom.
“There is no self-defense available to this defendant,” he said, taking point by point the instructions to the jury from Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Shapero.
But Aguilera’s defense attorney, Andrew Tursi, said though his client had “made mistakes,” the jury has to compare conflicting testimony from witnesses, Aguilera and Bargar, which, Tursi said, should give them reasonable doubt that Aguilera is guilty of attempted murder.
“There’s no evidence,” he repeated several times. “When you’re worried you might lose your life, you do whatever you have to do to stay alive.”
The trial, which reconvened Wednesday after a brief hiatus, has continued for more than six weeks, with jurors listening to testimony from a variety of witnesses, including a gang expert.
“Gang this, gang that, that’s all you’ve heard for the long weeks of the trial,” he said. “There’s no evidence this is gang-related.”
Scott showed jurors police photos of gang-type tattoos on Aguilera, comparing them to photos of similar tattoos on Aguilera’s friend, 21-year-old Daniel Zuniga of Gilroy. Zuniga faces separate attempted murder charges in the October shooting.
“Gangs are a scourge of our society, ruining the fabric and structure of our public schools,” Scott said.
He later added, “the people of Gilroy have a right to walk to their 7-Eleven, to their liquor store, without some stray bullet whacking them in the head.”
