Ambush in San Juan Capistrano Kills Man, Paralyzes His Cousin

There were no loud words before the two shots rang out inside the San Juan Capistrano apartment complex.

But fatally wounded was Juan Segura Pastrana, the husband of Eloina, a Mexican mother of three.

“Now, she doesn’t have anything. She has no money and no job. Nothing,” said the dead man’s brother, Erasto Segura Pastrana.

Four days have passed since someone ambushed Pastrana and his cousin, Timoteo Diaz, 30. Diaz remained in serious condition Saturday at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, paralyzed from the waist down from a spinal cord wound.

The two men were returning from a visit with a relative about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday when they were shot as they walked up a flight of stairs to a second-floor apartment.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies declined to disclose any information about the murder investigation.

Since the shooting, family and friends have offered support to Pastrana’s widow, the brother said.

“We’re trying to get all our money together to fly him down to Mexico and have him buried in Guerrero, the state that he’s from,” the brother said.

At Christian’s Farmers Market in Dana Point, where Pastrana was a custodian for more than a year, employees began a collection for funeral costs, said Ron Payne, store manager.

“He was one of my best employees. He was a very nice man,” Payne said.

On Friday, Pastrana’s body was released from the Orange County coroner’s office to McDougall’s Family Mortuary in Santa Ana.

A rosary has been scheduled for Monday at 10:30 a.m. A Mass will follow at 11 a.m. at the mortuary.

Pastrana also is survived by his three children: Miguel Angel, 1 1/2; Susanna, 2 1/2, and Juan, 5, who lives in Mexico. He has an uncle, Benjamin Pastrana of San Juan Capistrano.