Pina-Ruiz Testifies a 4th Day, Insists She Saw Penn Fire Shots

Testifying for a fourth day in the retrial of Sagon Penn, Sarah Pina-Ruiz insisted Thursday that she never told a Navy housing officer she was unable to see Penn shoot two police officers during a confrontation in Encanto because “it all happened so fast.”

“I can answer positively,” Pina-Ruiz said in response to a question from defense attorney Milton Silverman. “I have never told (Navy housing officer Carolyn Cherry) or anyone that I didn’t see anything.”

But, after Silverman played a tape recording of an April 17, 1985, conversation between Pina-Ruiz and Cherry, Pina-Ruiz did concede that she made other remarks she had denied making while testifying in Penn’s first trial a year ago.

The 34-year-old mother of two, a civilian observer riding with Police Agent Thomas Riggs at the time of the March 31, 1985, shootings, said she made the false statements by accident because she had confused Cherry with another housing officer.

Another Woman

“I may have mixed up some things, but I didn’t mix up Miss Cherry. . . . She just doesn’t exist in my memory,” Pina-Ruiz said, explaining that she pictured Cherry as another woman, known only as “Daisy,” and had answered Silverman’s questions based on that erroneous belief.

Penn, 25, was acquitted in June of murder in the slaying of Riggs and attempted murder in the wounding of Police Agent Donovan Jacobs. The fatal encounter, which also left Pina-Ruiz wounded, occurred in an Encanto driveway after Jacobs pulled over Penn’s pickup truck.

Penn is being retried before Superior Court Judge J. Morgan Lester on charges on which the first jury deadlocked, heavily in favor of acquittal. Those charges are attempted murder, manslaughter, attempted manslaughter and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. The trial is expected to last several months.

What Pina-Ruiz said--and to whom--has been a major issue since Penn’s first trial, when Silverman dealt a serious blow to Pina-Ruiz’s credibility by producing Cherry as a witness.

Fired Three Shots

Pina-Ruiz had testified--and maintains today--that she saw Penn “walk” the gun up Jacobs’ chest to his neck before firing, and then watched as Penn fired three shots at Riggs before turning the gun on her. She recalled that Penn “stared” into her eyes before shooting her twice through the window of the squad car.

In the last trial, Cherry cast a cloud of doubt over that version of events when she testified that Pina-Ruiz told her she could not see the shootings. Cherry said Pina-Ruiz made the statement during a conversation the two women had less than a month after the fatal episode, when Pina-Ruiz and her husband were registering for Navy housing.

Cherry also produced a scratchy, 17-minute tape-recording--which she said she made after she became concerned about Pina-Ruiz’s behavior--that was introduced in court in the first trial over the furious objections of prosecutors.

On the tape, which was barely audible Thursday, Pina-Ruiz tells Cherry she was the last one shot by Penn; talks about Jacobs’ involvement in the altercation, and jokes that her husband would have collected on her $75,000 life insurance policy had she died.

Pina-Ruiz denied in the last trial that she had made such statements to Cherry.

On Wednesday, Silverman queried Pina-Ruiz at length about her explanation that a case of mistaken identity had caused her to make incorrect statements while under oath a year ago.

Several times, Silverman focused on why the tape recording made by Cherry so closely mirrors the conversation Pina-Ruiz said she had with the other housing office employee, Daisy.

Near the end of his cross-examination, Silverman ventured into new subject matter, asking Pina-Ruiz about the civil suit she has filed against Penn and the San Diego Police Department. In particular, Silverman wanted to know whether Pina-Ruiz knew whether the jury’s verdict in Penn’s trial could have a bearing on her chances for victory in the civil matter.

Pina-Ruiz replied that she had “no idea” whether Penn’s fate would affect that litigation.

Silverman also queried Pina-Ruiz about whether she had attended a party hosted by Jacobs since the shootings and whether she had talked with Jacobs at the party. Pina-Ruiz said she had gone to the party but could not recall when or where it took place. She said she had not spoken with Jacobs.