The killing case of Morgan Hill teen Tara Romero spins a harrowing account of two opposing worlds colliding in terror when a group of young high school classmates celebrating a 15th birthday coincidentally crossed paths at the end of the night with five young men intent on settling a score with a rival street gang.
Following the hearing – which began last week and featured the testimonies of police officers who investigated the crime, as well as witnesses and victims – a Superior Court judge Tuesday determined that two of the five suspects accused of killing Tara Romero, 14, and injuring three of her friends in the 2011 drive-by shooting will stand trial on charges of murder and attempted murder for the bloody attack.
Judge Ronald Toff’s decision followed a five-day preliminary hearing at the Hall of Justice in San Jose that started last week with four suspects, two of whom the judge dismissed from the proceeding before it was over.
Suspects Ricardo Diaz, 20 of Morgan Hill, and Fernando Mateo Lopez, 21 of Gilroy will be re-arraigned June 17 on charges of their alleged involvement, motivated by their Sureno street gang ties, in the Nov. 4, 2011 shooting near the intersection of Cosmo and Del Monte avenues in southwest Morgan Hill, according to Deputy District Attorney Peter Waite.
Romero and her four friends with whom she was waiting for a ride home were not involved in any illegal gang activity, according to police, and had spent the evening socializing at Morgan Hill Bowl and the nearby Community Park before finding themselves targets of gunfire from a passing car.
“These kids were all good,” said Romero’s mother, Annette Nevarez, referring to the victims. “She’s never coming home. I just want these kids to have justice.”
Also shot in the drive-by were Rosa Castaneda, then 14; Alicia Sotelo, who was 15, and Chris Loredo, 16 at the time. Romero was pronounced dead at the scene. With them was Alex Chavez, who was celebrating his 15th birthday. He escaped uninjured. All five were students at Sobrato.
Castaneda, Chavez and Sotelo testified at the preliminary hearing.
The suspects started the hearing charged with Romero’s murder, and three counts of attempted murder for the injuries to Romero’s three friends. Waite said he will seek to add a fourth charge of attempted murder because witness testimony determined that a fifth victim – Ezra Santana, now 18 – was in the area targeted by the shooters. Santana was uninjured.
Prosecutors asked Santana to testify, but he refused, Waite said.
The incarceration of Santana earlier this year on a litany of charges related to a violent string of robberies in San Jose in January was one of many bizarre twists in the hearing and in the portrayal of what happened in the days leading up to the Morgan Hill shooting.
The purpose of the preliminary hearing was to determine if the DA’s office had enough evidence to bring the suspects to trial.
Three other suspects – Ramon Gutierrez, 18 of Morgan Hill; Esmeling Bahena, 19 of Morgan Hill; and Primitivo Hernandez, 24 of San Jose – will face a preliminary hearing at a future date for various reasons. Waite hopes to eventually prosecute all five suspects at the same trial. The five suspects pleaded not guilty to the charges earlier this year.
“I looked to my side and I saw blood squirting”
Just before the shooting, Castaneda said she vaguely noticed the suspects’ Chrysler 300M approaching the corner. She heard “yelling back and forth” including the word “Sur,” a gang slur indicating a southern or Sureno street gang affiliation. Then she heard the gunfire, which to her sounded like firecrackers.
“I wasn’t really sure what happened at first,” Castaneda said. “I looked to my side and I saw blood squirting.”
Castaneda also said she and her friends were drinking alcohol earlier in the night, and some of them had been smoking marijuana.
Some of the witnesses contradicted each other on certain details. Chavez, for example, said no one in the group of victims had been drinking or smoking marijuana.
Castaneda added that earlier in the evening, in the Community Park, the group of victims stopped to hang out with a group of unidentified young men in the park who appeared to be gang-related. These young men were not the suspects, and the victims testified they did not know the suspects and could not identify them in court.
Police testimony revealed that in the days leading up to the Nov. 4 drive-by shooting, the suspects were in the midst of a “beef” with local rival Nortenos. That feud included a series of vandalism incidents to the suspects’ property. Unidentified Nortenos allegedly broke windows on two of the suspects vehicles, and on Bahena’s mother’s residence on Barnell Avenue less than half a mile from the scene of the drive-by.
The feud also included an earlier drive-by shooting by Bahena on Halloween 2011, also in the area of Cosmo and Del Monte avenues – specifically just outside the Village Avante apartment complex near where Romero and her friends were shot – according to testimony by Ramirez. That shooting did not result in any injuries, and it followed an incident in which some Nortenos were seen throwing rocks at Diaz’ vehicle, Waite said.
And according to Morgan Hill Cpl. Scott Purvis, Bahena, Diaz and Gutierrez said while in custody on Nov. 5, after being read their Miranda rights, that all five men were in the car during the shooting, but they denied pulling the trigger. They also said they did not know there was going to be a shooting when they left their homes that night. Diaz was allegedly driving.
The five Sureno suspects were arrested hours after the Nov. 4 shooting at Bahena’s residence, when an officer saw their Chrysler 300M blow through a stop sign just down the street from the scene of Romero’s death.
Victim sobs on the stand while suspect laughs
Gutierrez and Bahena were present at the beginning of the recent hearing May 29, but they didn’t make it to the end. When present at the hearing, all four suspects sat in County Jail jumpsuits with their hands and feet shackled. Bahena and Mateo Lopez wore wireless headsets through which live translators across the courtroom translated the entirety of the proceedings into Spanish.
On Tuesday, Morgan Hill Police Detective Mario Ramirez testified as a gang expert and the lead investigator of the crime. While Ramirez was describing an earlier incident involving one of the suspects versus rival Nortenos, Gutierrez interrupted his testimony from the defense table, according to Waite.
“Mr. Gutierrez spoke to say, ‘I was there,’ or something like that,” Waite said.
That prompted Toff to stop the hearing and gather the attorneys for a private conference. When the judge and attorneys returned, Toff cast doubt on Gutierrez’ competency to stand trial, and severed him from the hearing.
In March, Gutierrez claimed he was not mentally competent, but an evaluation by a court-appointed doctor determined he was faking his symptoms.
But now, he will be evaluated yet again, Waite said.
Last Friday, Bahena was severed from the case because his attorney, Al Lopez of the Alternate Defender’s Office, declared a conflict when he learned his office also represents Santana on his unrelated criminal charges.
Gutierrez and Bahena will sit for preliminary hearings at later dates, as will Hernandez, whose attorney was in an unrelated trial this week, Waite said.
On Thursday, while Castaneda, 16, was testifying, the judge interrupted her to chastise Gutierrez who appeared to be laughing or smiling at times during the hearing.
“Do you find this humorous?” Toff asked Gutierrez, who replied, “No.”
Castaneda was shot in the stomach on Nov. 4, 2011, and she still suffers from her wounds. Just last month, she said, a bullet fragment from the incident worked its way out of her skin. Castaneda was comatose for several days in the hospital following the shooting. When she woke up, she learned her mother had died of liver failure.
“I still can’t run,” she said through sobs on the witness stand. “I couldn’t even go to my mother’s funeral. I couldn’t even go to my best friend’s funeral,” referring to Romero.
