Aguilera facing two attempted murder counts, each carrying a
life sentence
San Martin – The attempted murder trial of a suspected Norteno gang member began Wednesday at Santa Clara County Superior Court with a powerpoint presentation to the jury containing graphic photos of four different victims and the tattoo ridden body of the defendant.
Gilroy resident Anthony Aguilera, 22, faces two separate counts of attempted murder – each carrying life sentences if convicted, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, shooting into an inhabited vehicle and evading a police officer.
Aguilera is the primary suspect in the stabbing of a 24-year-old San Martin resident in a drug deal gone bad at the Extended Stay America motel on Jarvis Drive in Morgan Hill Jan. 29, 2005. He also is charged in a separate attempted murder incident Oct. 23, 2004, when a man was shot three times in his car in the parking lot of a Gilroy liquor store after being flagged down by two male suspects.
Both cases are being heard by Superior Court Judge Kenneth Shapero, who last week severed Aguilera’s trial from a second suspect in the incident – 21-year-old Daniel Zuniga. Aguilera is also charged with two assault with a deadly weapon incidents from 2004 where a Gilroy resident was severely beaten and another stabbed in the torso.
Deputy District Attorney Stuart Scott who is handling the case briefly described how each incident occurred, showing both photographs of the victims on hospital gurneys with their bloodied wounds and Aguilera’s alleged gang tattoos.
Defense attorney Andy Tursi played down the images in his opening statement.
“Opening statements are meant to give you a road map where the evidence is going to take you,” he explained to the jury. “You saw the pictures. You saw the charges … the blood and guts. What does the evidence show? I believe that the evidence is going to show there’s an explanation for what you have seen.”
Tursi did not lay out an explanation. He only promised the jury that the incidents did not happen in a vacuum.
“You just never, never know what’s going to happen,” he said. “I guarantee you, you have not heard everything. All I ask is that you please, please listen and not decide until the fat lady sings.”
Aguilera’s mother and teenage sister sat together during opening statements. Aguilera appeared in black dress slacks and tan collared shirt. Each time the courtroom door opened he turned, but the only emotion on his face was a smile when he spotted his mother and sister.
Outside the courtroom Aguilera’s mother Barbara said she hoped people realize her son is a human being – not a monster, a gang member, or any other label the prosecution might attach.
Testimony began with the driver of a car involved in the Oct. 23 shooting.
Mona Lisa Snythe, the driver of the vehicle Aguilera allegedly was riding in that night, testified he is a known on the streets as a Norteño gang member. She could not recall much of the incident, but said she was high on methamphetamine and had not slept for two days at the time. Snythe testified she never saw a gun and never saw who shot it at a Norteño gang member in the vehicle.
“It all happened so fast,” she said. “I was scared.”
A passenger remembered much more.
Linda Medina recalled being blocked into the parking lot of the liquor store by the suspect’s car after they were flagged to pull over. She remembered one of the male suspects pull something out of the car when he got out. And she described ducking as a series of shots rang out. She never saw the suspects faces so she couldn’t finger whether or not the shooter was Aguilera.
Day one of the trial wrapped with the start of Gilroy police Anti-Crime-Team Investigator Joseph Deras explaining the significance of Aguilera’s tattoos.
He pointed out that several tattoos on his hands and neck were typical markings of Norteño gang member. One large tattoo of the word “Gilroy” across his stomach was in a font associated with the gang, he explained. Deras described that gang members do not just tattoo markings like that on their chests.
“You have to earn a tattoo like this,” he said.
The trial continues Friday.
