2 Guatemalans Are Acquitted in Stabbing Death of Immigrant

A Ventura Superior Court jury acquitted two Guatemalan immigrants of first-degree murder Monday in the stabbing death of a fellow immigrant who claimed to have been a member of a rightist death squad in his homeland.

The jury, which deliberated four days, failed to reach verdicts on lesser charges of voluntary manslaughter and second-degree murder.

The judge declared a mistrial on the lesser charges and the district attorney has until April 20 to decide if he will refile charges.

Oscar Garnica-Vargas and Julio Arriaza, both 27, were charged in the July 19 stabbing death of Ezequiel Paz Romero, 37. Prosecutors alleged that Garnica-Vargas stabbed Romero to death during a fight over money. They also alleged that Arriaza handed Garnica-Vargas a knife and told him to kill Romero. Romero bled to death from a lanced abdominal artery.

Arriaza and Garnica-Vargas continue to be held on $1-million bail each.

Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury said his office had not yet decided whether it will retry the men on the lesser charges. Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn, the attorney prosecuting the case, could not be reached for comment.

After dismissing first-degree murder charges against both defendants, the jury failed to reach a verdict on a charge of voluntary manslaughter against Arriaza and a charge of second-degree murder against Garnica-Vargas, said Arturo Jimenez, chief investigator for the Ventura County public defender’s office.

Before the judge declared a mistrial, the jury had deadlocked 9 to 3 to acquit Arriaza of the manslaughter charge and 11 to 1 to acquit Garnica-Vargas of the second-degree murder charge, Jiminez said.

The three men, who had emigrated illegally from Guatemala to Simi Valley, lived in a single-story home with 17 other Guatemalans and worked recycling used tires.

They rode around Ventura County in a beat-up van, scavenging old tires from gas stations, dumps and roadsides. The three used a machine to carve grooves into the bald tires, paint them and sell the tires for about $7.50 apiece.

On July 19 about 11 p.m., Garnica-Vargas and Romero began arguing about their earnings. The pair were seen wrestling, punching and kicking each other outside of the house before Garnica-Vargas produced a knife and stabbed Romero once in the stomach, prosecutors said.

Arriaza’s attorney argued that his client had no role in Romero’s death. Jimenez said he thinks the jury acquitted Garnica-Vargas on the first-degree murder charge because they believed that Garnica-Vargas stabbed Romero in self-defense.

During the trial, a witness testified that Romero often bragged about the guns he owned and about the people he had killed while a member of a death squad in Guatemala.