Claims she was scared of suspect
San Martin – Monique Zamaripa broke down in tears as she described how she drove the getaway car for attempted murder suspect Anthony Aguilera through the streets of Gilroy, running stop signs and traffic lights as she evaded a train of police cars behind her.
Zamaripa testified Tuesday in the fourth day of trial at Santa Clara County Superior Court, dressed all black and repeatedly dabbing her eyes with tissue. She had never been in trouble with the law before Jan. 26, 2005 when her brother’s friend Anthony Aguilera allegedly stabbed a man in a Morgan Hill hotel room during a drug deal gone sour. He suffered stab wounds of his own during the incident and needed her to drive him to the hospital for treatment.
Zamaripa said she was afraid of Aguilera, a 22-year-old suspected Norteño gang member who is charged with two separate counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, shooting into an inhabited vehicle and evading a police officer. He is the primary suspect in a separate attempted murder incident on Oct. 23, 2004 when a man was shot three times in his car in the parking lot of a Gilroy liquor store.
Zamaripa, 24, testified she was grocery shopping when her brother called her to drive Aguilera to Saint Louise Regional Hospital. As she waited in the hospital parking lot, Zamaripa saw Aguilera running from the emergency room doors and into the back of her car.
“He told me ‘Go go!'” she said, her voice choking as she recounted her involvement to Deputy District Attorney Stuart Scott. “I just got scared. I went and he told me not to stop. And I didn’t. I didn’t know what would happen to me, what he might do.”
Zamaripa listened as Aguilera ordered her not to stop.
She drove her silver Honda Civic southbound on No Name Uno through traffic lights on Leavesley Road, stop signs on Murray Avenue and across San Ysidro Park into a nearby RV park, before finally stopping at Chestnut and Lewis streets when Aguilera took off on foot.
“The silver car ignored every traffic sign I can remember,” said Supervising Deputy District Attorney Frank Carrubba, who was riding in a police cruiser following the car. “It looked like a train. It was the silver car and then five or so Gilroy Police Department cars.”
Zamaripa was arrested at the scene for helping a felon evade arrest. She has since been convicted of the charge.
Police set up a perimeter of the area, searching neighborhood homes until Aguilera surrendered two hours later at about 1am.
According to Bertha Najar, Aguilera hid in her apartment on Chestnut Street while authorities searched for him.
She testified Tuesday that she was unaware who he was when she came home from the store and found him in her home.
“He was on the floor just sitting there,” she said, describing how she found him sitting in the dark in her daughter’s bedroom.
Police discovered a bloody white T-shirt in her washing machine and found Aguilera wearing one of her son’s old black T-shirts. Carrubba testified that Aguilera ran past him at the hospital wearing a bloodied T-shirt hours before his arrest.
Aguilera sustained multiple lacerations to his face, chest and neck while fighting with the 24-year-old San Martin man he stands accused of trying to kill at the hotel. A 1-inch scar remains near his left jaw where he was stabbed, said defense Attorney Andy Tursi.
The victim testified Monday that he was fighting for his life with a box cutter when Aguilera attacked him at the Extended Stay America hotel where he went to sell him $1,000 in marijuana.
Scott Bargar suffered life-threatening injuries in the fight and said it was possible he may have injured his attacker as he fought his way out of the room.
“(The victim) was no shrinking violet,” Tursi said, outside the courtroom. “He gave as good as he got.”
The prosecution is expected to wrap up its portion of the trial Thursday afternoon with testimony from the man allegedly shot by Aguilera in October 2004.
The defense is expected to present its side Monday, June 19 with possible testimony by Aguilera.
“The decision to testify is totally up to him,” Tursi said. “We’ve talked about it.”
