More than four years after 14-year-old Tara Romero was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in southwest Morgan Hill, two of the five suspects accused of killing her and wounding three of her friends will stand trial starting this week. A third suspect recently pleaded guilty to the murder charge and will testify in the upcoming proceedings, according to authorities.
On trial are Fernando Mateo Lopez, 24 of Gilroy, and Primitivo Hernandez, 27 of San Jose. The trial starts Wednesday, March 2, with attorneys’ opening statements at the Hall of Justice in San Jose. They are charged with murder and attempted murder for their suspected involvement in the Nov. 4, 2011 drive-by shooting at the corner of Cosmo and Del Monte avenues.
Attorneys and jurors are prepared for a lengthy trial, as the 12-person jury plus alternates are qualified to attend the proceedings through April, according to Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Miguel Valdovinos
Expected to testify against his former co-defendants is Ricardo Diaz, 23 of Morgan Hill, Valdovinos said. Diaz pleaded guilty recently to the murder of Romero, who was a freshman at Sobrato High School when she was fatally shot.
Diaz has not been sentenced, and Valdovinos declined to specify the terms of his plea agreement when contacted earlier this week. Those details are expected to emerge during the current trial.
A fourth defendant, Esmeling Bahena, 22 of Morgan Hill, was “severed” from the current trial, and will be tried for the same crime after April, Valdovinos added. “Some of the evidence against him is exclusively for him, based on evidentiary issues and a legal ruling that he cannot be tried by the same jury,” Valdovinos said. More details about his case are expected to come to light during this week’s trial as well.
The fifth suspect, Ramon Gutierrez, 21 of Morgan Hill, remains in the custody of a state mental health facility. He was declared mentally incompetent to stand trial after the May 2013 preliminary hearing on the Romero case. He also pleaded guilty to assaulting a nurse at a facility in Atascadero in 2014, in an incident unrelated to the 2011 murder charge, according to authorities.
All five suspects are accused of occupying the Chrysler 300 that drove slowly by a grassy knoll outside the Village Avante apartment complex the night of Nov. 4, 2011, and opening fire on the group of teenagers standing in the area. Romero and three of her friends were struck by the gunfire, which police said came from two shooters inside the vehicle.
Romero was pronounced dead at the scene. The teens had been celebrating at a birthday party that Friday night, and were waiting on the corner for a ride home when the shooting happened.
Police said the suspects were members of an illegal street gang, and carried out the shooting to settle a beef with a rival gang. However, the teens they shot were mistakenly targeted and were not involved in gang activity.
Just minutes after the 2011 shooting, a Morgan Hill police officer was driving through the neighborhood on patrol when he saw the Chrysler blow through a stop sign. The officer began to pursue the vehicle as he heard a report of the shooting over his radio. He followed the Chrysler to Bahena’s home on Barnell Avenue, and arrested all five suspects after a non-violent standoff, according to police.
Police recovered two firearms—a handgun and a SKS rifle—in the suspects’ possession, according to authorities.
At the 2013 preliminary hearing for four of the suspects, MHPD officers who arrested them and followed up with the investigation, testified that Bahena, Gutierrez and Diaz told police shortly after their arrest that all five defendants were in the vehicle and carrying the firearms at the time of the shooting. These three suspects denied they were the ones who pulled the trigger.
All five suspects have remained in custody since their arrest the night of Nov. 4, 2011.
