Jury Finds 2nd Defendant Guilty in 3 Slayings

After deliberating for a day and a half, a jury found a San Diego man guilty Tuesday of three counts of first-degree murders and one of attempted murder, setting the stage for a penalty phase in which he could face the death penalty.

Hector Ayala, 38, showed little emotion when a San Diego Superior Court clerk read the guilty verdicts after a trial that began May 30.

In finding Ayala guilty with special circumstances, the jury found the killings involved multiple victims and that they occurred during a robbery or attempted robbery.

Judge Donald Meloche, substituting for Judge Napoleon Jones Jr., who heard the case, ordered the same jury to return Aug. 14 for the penalty phase, in which the jury will recommend whether Ayala should be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The conviction Tuesday marks the second guilty verdict in the execution-style slayings of three men in a garage in Southeast San Diego on April 26, 1985. The garage was a heroin distribution point. All three men were bound and gagged with duct tape and shot repeatedly in the head. Pedro Castillo, 42, was shot in the back as he fled but lived to testify against Ayala.

The victims were Ernesto Mendez Dominguez, 30; his brother-in-law, Marco Zamora-Villa, 31, and Jose (Cucuy) Luis Rositas, 24.

Ayala’s brother, Ronaldo Ayala, 39, was convicted in a separate trial in October, 1988, and was sentenced to death Feb. 9. He is on Death Row in San Quentin State Prison.

The trial of co-defendant Jose Moreno, 50, will follow Hector Ayala’s trial.