Alien Falsely Accused in 2 Killings Found in Tijuana

One of two deported illegal immigrants who had been charged with street murders they could not have committed has been located in a Tijuana jail and questioned by Los Angeles police investigating whether their confessions here were extracted by force, it was learned Friday.

Police spokesman Cmdr. William Booth confirmed that two Internal Affairs Division officers interviewed Ruben Avila Trujillo, 24, Thursday after he was arrested by Mexican authorities.

They had been alerted by Los Angeles police that Trujillo, a Mexican citizen, had allegedly confessed to a murder in his native country during the same interview in which he gave details about his participation in two downtown Los Angeles street murders that occurred within hours of each other on March 21 when, in fact, he was in jail in San Diego.

Charges were dismissed Monday against Trujillo after his alibi was verified. Murder and robbery charges were also dropped against a second defendant, Pedro Barrios Delvillar, who was in a California Youth Authority facility on March 21.

When he was arrested Oct. 28 on an unrelated charge, Trujillo was questioned by Detective James McCann about a robbery-murder in Mexico. “Detectives had not received such information, but given Trujillo’s conduct, the question seemed reasonable,” police said in a report filed in Los Angeles Municipal Court.

“Trujillo immediately admitted that he had been involved in such a crime,” the report said.

Trujillo’s attorney, James A. Goldstein, said Trujillo’s confession to a third murder is “based on the same crap that the other two were.”

Goldstein reacted angrily to the fact that he was not alerted by Los Angeles police before Thursday’s interview took place.

But Booth, who would not disclose what Trujillo said to investigators, noted that Goldstein had served as “a defense attorney in a criminal matter, at taxpayers’ expense. As far as I know, Mr. Trujillo retained no attorney in Tijuana.”