Trial for 2011 drive-by murder suspects postponed

Two of the five suspects accused of killing Morgan Hill teen Tara Romero in a Nov. 4, 2011 drive-by shooting were scheduled to stand trial starting this week, but the prosecutor in the case thinks October could be the earliest date they will face a jury.
Fernando Mateo Lopez, 21 of Gilroy, and Ricardo Diaz, 20 of Morgan Hill, remain in custody on charges of murder, and five counts of attempted murder for their involvement in the drive-by attack at the corner of Cosmo and Del Monte avenues in southwest Morgan Hill.
They are charged along with three other suspects who also remain in custody, but whose trial dates have not been set. Esmeling Bahena, 19 of Morgan Hill, Ramon Gutierrez, 18 of Morgan Hill, and Primitivo Hernandez, 24 of San Jose are charged with murder and three counts of attempted murder.
During a week-long preliminary hearing at the San Jose Hall of Justice in June that saw numerous bizarre twists, authorities testified that Bahena, Gutierrez and Diaz told officers after their arrest the five suspects were traveling together in a Chrysler 300M when someone in the vehicle opened fire on a group of teens standing on the corner just outside the Village Avante apartment complex.
They denied pulling the trigger, and insisted they did not go out that night planning to shoot anybody, officers testified.
All five suspects were arrested just hours after the shooting.
Romero, 14, was pronounced dead at the scene of the shooting, which occurred on a Friday night when she had been celebrating a friend’s birthday in south Morgan Hill. She was a freshman at Sobrato High School.
Also shot in the drive-by were three of Romero’s friends and classmates at Sobrato. Rosa Castaneda, Alicia Sotelo and Chris Loredo were injured by the gunfire that sprayed from the Chrysler as the suspects drove slowly past the group of teens, authorities said.
The teens were socializing in a grassy area near the intersection, and were in the process of calling for a ride home when the shooting happened, according to testimony at the June hearing.
Lopez and Diaz appeared in court in San Jose Monday, which was scheduled to be the start of their jury trial. However, the new trial date was extended to Aug. 12, but the defendants’ attorneys are unlikely to be ready even by then, according to Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Peter Waite.
The August hearing is likely to be continued to October, Waite said.
The five suspects are also charged with a special circumstance of carrying out the crime for the benefit of a criminal street gang, namely the Sureno gang, authorities said.
According to police testimony, the five suspects opened fire at the Morgan Hill intersection that night to settle a “beef” with the rival Norteno gang, but the teens they targeted were uninvolved in any street gang activity.
The suspects were allegedly responding to a feud that started several days earlier, which included acts of vandalism on rivals’ vehicles and other property, and an October 2011 drive-by shooting that did not result in any injuries near Village Avante.
The five counts of attempted murder for Lopez and Diaz are related to their effort to kill Castaneda, Sotelo, Loredo, Alex Chavez (the teen whose birthday the victims were celebrating), and Ezra Santana, 18, who was standing in the range of the gunfire the night of Nov. 4, 2011 but was not part of Romero’s group of friends, according to testimony in June.
The preliminary hearing in June started with four of the suspects, not including Hernandez who sat out because his attorney was involved in another trial.
However, Bahena had to be excused from the hearing halfway through because his attorney learned that his office – the County Alternate Defender’s Office – had a conflict of interest involving the victim Santana, who faces charges in an unrelated string of violent robberies he is accused of in San Jose earlier this year.
Also, at the end of the June hearing, the judge determined that Gutierrez was not mentally competent to stand trial due to his behavior during the proceeding, and he was severed from the hearing, authorities said.
Hernandez and Bahena are scheduled for a status hearing Wednesday at the Hall of Justice. Gutierrez was scheduled to be evaluated by a doctor earlier this month, but he refused to leave his jail cell and the appointment was continued, Waite said.