Cinco Convicted of 1st-Degree Murder in Police Shootings

Joselito Cinco was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder in the slayings of two San Diego police officers, including the city’s first policewoman to be killed in the line of duty.

The jury also made a special-circumstances finding, which means it will return next month to determine whether Cinco, a Spring Valley resident, should be executed or face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Luis Cardenas ordered the jury and Cinco, 28, to return March 1 for the penalty phase.

Officers Kimberly Tonahill, 24, and Timothy Ruopp, 31, were shot to death Sept. 14, 1984, during a confrontation in the Grape Street section of Balboa Park.

In addition to the two counts of first-degree murder, Cinco was convicted of attempted murder of a third police officer, Gary Mitrovich, who had responded to the shootings. The jury, which deliberated for just two hours, determined that Cinco had caused great bodily injury to Mitrovich, who was shot in the shoulder.

Cinco showed little reaction to the verdicts, which were read amid tight security. Afterward, his attorney, John Cotsirilos, who had argued for a second-degree murder conviction, said he was disappointed.

“I respect the jury’s verdicts. They’re 12 good people and I’m getting ready for the next part of the trial,” he said.

Cotsirilos had argued that Cinco was under the influence of drugs at the time of the killings and that his actions were not “premeditated and deliberate.”

Hot Summer Night

“It was a fast verdict, but we had a strong case,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Neely. “We expected it, and justice was done.”

The jury found three special circumstances that could bring the death penalty: multiple murders, murder to avoid arrest and murder of police officers engaged in the line of duty.

The shootings occurred on a hot summer night in Balboa Park. Ruopp and Tonahill encountered Cinco after noticing that teen-age girls with him appeared to be drinking alcoholic beverages in paper cups, according to police investigators.

After finding alcohol present, Ruopp ordered the two girls, Gina Hensel and Dana Andreasen, into his patrol car so he could take them home.

Tonahill began to frisk Cinco, who pulled out a 9-millimeter automatic pistol and shot her. She died within minutes.

Cinco then quickly shot Ruopp once in the face. He died two days later.

Tonahill, who was single, had been with the Police Department 11 months. Ruopp, a father of four, had been a member of the force for 2 1/2 years.

Mitrovich, a 7 1/2-year veteran of the department, was wounded in the shoulder and is back on the force as a public information officer.

Neither Officer Drew Weapon

Neither Ruopp nor Tonahill had a chance to draw their guns before they were shot, investigators said. Tonahill died when a bullet passed through a gap in the side of her bulletproof vest and entered her heart. Ruopp was struck just above an eye.

After the shootings, Cinco got the girls out of the patrol car, and the girls ran screaming into the park and hid under a bench, police said.

Cinco and a friend, Victor Casillas, fled into a wooded area, but both were arrested hours later. Casillas was not charged.

Not present for the verdicts were Cinco’s mother and stepfather, who had attended the trial frequently.

All spectators were thoroughly searched with a metal detector before entering the courtroom, and the door was locked 10 minutes before the verdict was read in the late afternoon.

The trial was moved to Orange County in 1985 after it was determined that pretrial publicity might have prevented a fair trial in San Diego.

The penalty phase could last two weeks. Cinco, an auto mechanic, remains in Orange County Jail in Santa Ana.