San Diego

A jury Monday acquitted a man charged with three drug-related murders in a case in which two other co-defendants had been convicted and sentenced to death by two other juries.

Joseph Moreno, 50, who has been in jail since his arrest in late 1985, was ordered freed by Superior Court Judge William Kennedy.

The other co-defendants, Ronaldo Ayala, 39, and his brother, Hector Ayala, 38, are on Death Row in San Quentin for their triple-murder convictions.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Gloria Michaels said after the verdict that jurors told her they had reasonable doubt regarding Moreno’s role in the slayings committed April 26, 1985, in a Southeast San Diego garage where heroin had been sold.

Moreno’s fingerprints were found on duct tape that had been placed across the victims’ mouths.

Michaels said the jurors, who had become aware of the convictions of the Ayala brothers, said they had considered the possibility that Moreno might have been coerced to participate.

The victims, Ernesto (Cha Cho) Dominguez, 30; his brother-in-law, Marco Zamora, 31; and Jose (Cucuy) Rositas, 24, were all gagged, bound and shot twice in the back of the head.

The lone survivor, Pedro (Pete) Castillo, 43, testified in all three trials. He said he told the Ayala brothers that he had some money in his car outside. He fled when a door was opened, and he was shot in the back. A police officer found him wounded in the street.

Moreno was also acquitted of trying to kill Castillo and of robbing the slain victims.

Special-circumstances allegations were not lodged against Moreno because prosecutors felt the gunmen were the Ayala brothers.

The jury deliberated about a day.