Murder Charges Dropped : New Ballistics Test Disproves LAPD Lab Results for 2nd Time

The accused triggerman in the “Cotton Club” trial had murder charges against him dropped Wednesday in an unrelated case when Los Angeles Police Department ballistics tests linking him to the murder weapon proved inconclusive.

Municipal Judge David Horwitz dismissed a single count of murder against Alex Marti, 29, of Sherman Oaks on a motion made by prosecutors, who argued that new ballistics tests undermined their case against Marti.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Sally Thomas said Marti had been charged with providing a gun to another man who allegedly shot to death reputed drug dealer Rene Vega in August, 1987, in Bel-Air.

LAPD Tests

After the slaying, authorities recovered a .45-caliber handgun that Marti had allegedly once sold and that they believed was the murder weapon. Initial ballistics tests by the LAPD tied that gun to the Vega slaying, but more recent tests showed that the gun was not the murder weapon, Thomas said.

The reputed triggerman, Rod Colombo, and another man who allegedly aided in the killing, Scott Ashley, are still being prosecuted for Vega’s murder.

It was the second time this year that the prosecution had asked a judge to dismiss murder charges against a defendant because of faulty ballistics tests by the LAPD crime lab.

Rickey Ross, a former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy, was charged with murder in connection with a series of prostitute killings earlier this year, but then was released from jail after new tests showed the gun was not the murder weapon.

Rickey Ross Case Cited

“When we found out about the misanalysis in the Rickey Ross case, we decided to have another comparison done” in the Marti case, prosecutor Thomas said.

Attorneys for Marti had the gun tested at the same lab that ruled out Ross’ gun and tests performed by the Sheriff’s Department lab confirmed that the gun could not be positively linked to the killing.

“I’m not going to go forward in a case in which I don’t think there’s enough evidence,” Thomas said. “This wasn’t a Rickey Ross case where we had no other evidence, but we had slight other evidence, not enough.”

Aside from the ballistics evidence, prosecutors relied on statements by a key witness in the “Cotton Club” murder case, Lyle Kreutzer, who implicated Marti in both killings.