Judge Rejects Minority Bid for Jury Overhaul

An Orange County Superior Court judge Wednesday denied a request by defense attorneys in two capital murder cases for major revisions in the county’s jury selection process that would increase the number of Latinos on the jury rolls.

“There is no proven discriminatory effect in the court’s jury selection procedures,” Judge Myron S. Brown said. “There is no proof the process results in any under-representation of jury-eligible Hispanics.”

The request was made by attorneys for Marcelinos Ramos, 30, who was convicted of the 1979 murder of a Santa Ana Taco Bell employee, and Joselito Cinco, 28, who is accused of killing two San Diego police officers in 1984.

The attorneys contend that the county’s jury-selection methods, which rely on voter-registration rolls and lists of residents supplied by the Department of Motor Vehicles, stack the ethnic makeup of juries against their clients.

Brown said Wednesday that he found the defense arguments “interesting” but that he thought testimony from expert witnesses they had called showed that they had failed to prove their case.

Ramos was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to die in the gas chamber for the execution-style slaying during a robbery. His sentence was overturned by the state Supreme Court in 1984, when it ruled that prosecutors must show that a defendant intended to kill his victim to establish a “special circumstance” in a murder felony murder case. Ramos now faces a retrial of the penalty phase.

Cinco’s case was sent to Orange County on a change of venue. Brown on Wednesday set trial dates of July 6 for Cinco and Oct. 7 for Ramos.

Ramos’ trial attorney, Joel W. Baruch, first brought up the jury-selection issue in July, 1985, when sought (and received) a court order to force jury commissioner Alan Slater to turn over 20,000 names of people called for jury duty that year. Baruch said he needed them to study whether Latinos were under-represented on the county’s juries.

Cinco’s attorneys joined the effort later that year.

Wednesday, Baruch and Deputy Public Defender Thomas Havlena, co-counsel for Ramos, said their study showed a better representation than they first expected, but they still were not satisfied.

“If we start trial with 200 (prospective) jurors and I only see three Hispanics, I’m going to be yelling again,” Baruch said.

Findings at Variance

Ramos’ attorneys said two years ago that they expected to find that Latinos made up about 6% of those who report for jury duty, even though the percentage on the county’s list of those eligible might be almost twice that.

What they found, after hiring several jury polling experts, was that about 11% of the names on the county’s list of those eligible for jury duty and about 9% of those being chosen for jury duty were Latino.

Brown said he was troubled partly because defense expert Edgar W. Butler, a UC Riverside sociologist, testified that the street guide used in part of his study did not include all the streets in the county.

Brown said in his written ruling that part of the defense’s survey was “fatally flawed.”

Havlena acknowledged that the disparity between the number of eligible Latinos and the number called for duty is less than he expected. He said that he and Baruch believe their efforts have already affected the makeup of juries.

Accusation Denied

They said that Slater ordered changes in the jury-selection formula in February, 1985, after they made it known they were going to mount a major challenge to the system.

Slater denied that with a smile and a shake of his head.

“We order changes every year in an attempt to comply with the state code,” Slater said. “The Ramos case had nothing to do with it.”

Baruch said it is important to have Latinos on Ramos’ jury because “he’s a Mexican-American from the barrio accused of killing a white girl. We need someone on that jury who can understand his background.”

Ramos and a co-defendant were identified as the two men who robbed the Taco Bell late at night on June 3, 1979.

Kevin Pickrill, a cook, testified that Ramos ordered him and the night manager, Augusta Parrott, 20, to get on the ground. Then he placed a gun near the backs of their heads, Pickrill said, and told them, “Say your prayers.”

Parrott was killed instantly, but Pickrill survived a serious head wound.

Cinco is of Filipino descent, Baruch said. He and three friends were in Balboa Park on Sept. 13, 1984, when they were approached by San Diego Police Officer Timothy J. Ruopp, 31, who reportedly asked Cinco and another man in the group if they were drinking alcohol. Ruopp then received backup help from rookie Officer Kimberly Sue Tonahill, 24.

Cinco is accused of shooting both with a 9mm pistol. A third officer, Gary Mitrovich, 26, who arrived on the scene shortly afterward, was shot in the shoulder but was not seriously injured.