San Martin
– An off-duty Sheriff’s deputy and his son told jurors Friday
that although they could not identify the gunman, they were
witnesses to the shooting.
San Martin – An off-duty Sheriff’s deputy and his son told jurors Friday that although they could not identify the gunman, they were witnesses to the shooting.
Anthony Frausto, 19, is accused of murdering Luis Bautista, 19, of Gilroy, in a gang-related shooting Sept. 30, 2005. He was arrested Oct. 2, 2005 and has been in custody without bail since then.
Deputy Michael Paresa, Sr., and his son, Mike Paresa, Jr., were coming from the Safeway gas station in Tennant Station shopping center about 9pm the night of the shooting, they told jurors, and had come to the rear of the shopping center behind the Safeway grocery store and JoAnn’s Fabrics when they saw the confrontation.
According to Paresa, Sr., he noticed six to eight males in their late teens or early 20s walking west in the driveway area behind the stores. A white pickup truck drove around his Toyota Corolla and stopped in front of the other group. Four or five males jumped out of the pickup truck, one of them grabbing a broom handle from the back of the truck.
Paresa said the groups walked toward each other until they were about 10 feet apart, then both groups stopped. He told jurors they appeared to be yelling things at each other and gesturing, though he could not hear what they were saying. As he watched, he saw a muzzle flash and heard a loud bang, then more shots followed. He said he could not identify the shooter.
Bautista was taken to Saint Louise Regional Hospital, and later flown by helicopter to Regional Medical Center in San Jose, where he died.
Jurors also heard testimony from Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office forensic pathologist Joseph O’Hara, who performed the autopsy on Bautista.
He described, at the request of Deputy District Attorney Stuart Scott, the damage caused by two of the three bullets that struck Bautista as they traveled through his body.
The damage caused by one of the bullets, O’Hara told jurors, could have been fatal without medical treatment. The bullet entered Bautista’s body in the lower abdomen and exited his lower back. A second bullet, which entered Bautista’s side under his arm and was lodged inside his body, caused fatal damage, O’Hara said.
Jurors were shown pictures on a projection screen of Bautista’s lifeless body on the autopsy table, as well as pictures of the entry and exit wounds.
Frausto’s mother and family members were in the courtroom Friday, but declined to comment. Frausto’s mother said she is “just trying to get through each day.”
