Jury Asks for Death Penalty in Killing of 2 San Diego Officers

An Orange County jury Friday recommended the death sentence for a man convicted of shooting to death in 1984 two San Diego police officers who were citing him for drinking whiskey with minors in a park.

Joselito Cinco showed no emotion as the jury’s verdict was read. Cinco, 28, was convicted by the same jury on Feb. 18 of first-degree murder in the killing of officers Kimberly Tonahill, 24, and Timothy Ruopp, 31, at San Diego’s Balboa Park.

He was also convicted of attempted murder in the wounding of a third officer, Gary Mitrovich, 29.

The jury in Orange County Superior Court in Westminster, which had convicted Cinco after only two hours of deliberation, considered the death penalty for one day before recommending the gas chamber.

Superior Court Judge Luis A. Cardenas scheduled sentencing for May 23. He can either affirm the jury’s recommendation and sentence Cinco to death, or reduce the penalty to life in prison without possibility of parole.

Cathy Ruopp-Probett, Ruopp’s widow, said in a telephone interview that she was “very relieved” with the jury’s decision.

“He is an animal who deserves to die,” she said.

Mitrovich said Cinco received “an appropriate punishment.”

San Diego County Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard J. Neely called the decision an “appropriate verdict.”

“I’m proud of the jury,” he said. “It was a difficult decision.”

Co-prosecutor Howard Shore said, “Justice will be complete on the day he is executed.”

The recommendation “sends a clear message to the crooks on the street that if they shoot an officer, they will die for it,” said San Diego Assistant Police Chief Bob Burgreen in a telephone interview from San Diego.

Defense lawyer John Cotsirilos was not immediately available for comment.

The case took three years to reach trial and was moved to Orange County because of extensive pretrial publicity in San Diego.

During the trial, Cotsirilos tried to portray the Sept. 24, 1984, killings as a “drug-soaked moment of panic.” The shootings occurred during a routine citation for drinking whiskey in Balboa Park.

He said Cinco had used cocaine, “speed,” marijuana and alcohol the night of the slayings.

Neely argued that Cinco was in control of himself and should be held fully responsible for the two officers’ deaths.

Citation for Drinking

The murders occurred after Ruopp spotted Cinco and three friends drinking next to a car in the Balboa Park parking lot about 11 p.m., witnesses testified. Roupp placed two teen-age girls in the back of his patrol car for violating curfew and called for reinforcements.

Ruopp wrote Cinco a citation for violating curfew and providing alcohol to a minor. When Tonahill arrived, Ruopp told her to search Cinco, and while she frisked him Cinco pulled a concealed handgun and shot her four times. He then shot Roupp in the face.

Neither officer had time to pull their own weapons, witnesses testified. Tonahill became the first woman officer in San Diego killed in the line of duty.

Cinco reloaded and wounded Mitrovich in the shoulder as he drove up to the scene.