Testimony in Penn Case Is Rebutted

Sarah Pina-Ruiz denied Tuesday that she told a Navy housing officer less than a month after she was shot by Sagon Penn that she was unable to see the shootings of two police officers because “it all happened so fast.”

Pina-Ruiz testified last month that she saw Penn shoot the San Diego officers before the 24-year-old Southeast San Diego resident turned the gun on her and fired twice as she sat in the front seat of a patrol car.

Defense witness Carolyn Cherry on April 24 contradicted Pina-Ruiz’s testimony when she testified that Pina-Ruiz told her she could not see the shootings.

“I asked, ‘Couldn’t you have ducked or run or tried to get away?’ ” Cherry recalled. “She said she couldn’t see anything, it all happened so fast.”

On Tuesday, Pina-Ruiz responded: “I never told her or anyone else that I never saw anything. I saw it very clearly. I said things happened too quickly. I was unable to do anything.”

Penn is charged with murder in the March 31, 1985, shooting death of Police Agent Thomas Riggs and attempted murder in the shootings of Agent Donovan Jacobs and Pina-Ruiz, who was accompanying Riggs as a civilian ride-along. Numerous witnesses have said they saw the officers beat Penn with police batons and heard Jacobs use racial slurs before the shootings.

Penn grabbed Jacobs’ police revolver and shot him once in the neck, then shot Riggs three times before turning and shooting Pina-Ruiz. One bullet hit Pina-Ruiz in the left arm, then entered her side and exited through her abdomen; the other grazed her back.

Pina-Ruiz, 34, dramatically recounted the shootings in her earlier testimony, describing how Penn wounded Jacobs, then looked her in the eye before pointing the revolver at her.

“He moved it several times upward . . . to the left side of (Jacobs’) neck . . . I saw the trigger going back,” she testified. “My eyes went right to the hammer . . . I saw it go off, and I saw blood splatter back . . . The next thing I looked at was the barrel of the gun. I knew he was going to shoot me in the face . . . I thought I was going to get killed.”

Cherry testified after reading newspaper accounts of those statements.

“I was completely shocked,” she said. “When she spoke to me, her exact words were that it all happened so fast and she was unable to see anything.”

Pina-Ruiz and her husband, who is an enlisted man in the Navy, went to Cherry’s office one month after the shootings to be assigned government housing. The Police Department had made a special request that Pina-Ruiz’s family receive quarters that would normally require a three-year wait.

Cherry testified that Pina-Ruiz initially played the role of a sick victim during the 30-minute meeting, but her demeanor changed once her husband left the room. Pina-Ruiz became talkative, joked that her husband would have received $25,000 in life insurance had she died, and danced in her chair to the radio rock music being played in the office, Cherry said.

On Tuesday, Pina-Ruiz said her husband never left the room during the meeting and that she could not remember any music playing in the office.

Silverman, reading from a document, posed a series of questions to Pina-Ruiz regarding specific segments of the conversation. He asked if Pina-Ruiz discussed the police officers, used the phrase “some American honky,” and remarked that she was the last one who was shot.

Pina-Ruiz stated that she was certain she had not talked about any of the subjects.

The line of questioning indicated that Silverman has additional evidence--either a tape recording or a surprise witness--to support his contention that Pina-Ruiz told Cherry she did not see the shootings.

Pina-Ruiz is expected to return to the witness stand for more questioning this morning.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Carpenter said he will wrap up the prosecution’s rebuttal phase of the trial today, with Jacobs taking the stand along with three character witnesses. Ten officers have already testified that Jacobs has been an outstanding policeman in his seven years on the force.

Several defense witnesses, including Jacobs’ former supervisor, Lt. Doyle Wheeler, have testified that Jacobs is a “hothead” who has problems with bias and racism. The prosecution has attempted to discredit Wheeler’s testimony by noting that he had deep psychological problems and retired from the department after a stress disability claim.

But Dr. Alan Abrams, one of the psychiatrists who treated Wheeler, testified Tuesday that Wheeler is basically a truthful person.

“I don’t think Doyle Wheeler would come into a courtroom and lie,” Abrams said. “He has enormous respect for the concept of law.”

Abrams added that Wheeler’s recollection of events may be colored by his contempt for Police Department officials who he feels treated him unfairly.