Two Plead Guilty in Holdup-Killing

Two suspects have pleaded guilty in the robbery and murder of an Oceanside restaurant manager that prosecutors call a “botched holdup that suddenly went very, very sour.”

Juan Mauricio Salinas, 32, pleaded guilty Monday in Vista court to first-degree murder in the June 19 stabbing death of El Torito restaurant manager David Taber. Taber was held at knifepoint by three intruders before he was slain early in the morning after the restaurant’s closing.

In return for the guilty plea, prosecutors agreed not to file special circumstance charges that could have made Salinas eligible for the death penalty. He will face a maximum penalty of 32 years to life in prison when sentenced.

“The upshot is that Mr. Salinas agreed to return from Mexico to face charges in the case,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Greg Walden, describing the plea bargain.

Franciso Arguelles Pantoja, 19, an accomplice in the case, pleaded guilty to robbery and being an accessory to murder after the fact, prosecutors said, and faces a maximum sentence of five years and eight months in prison.

Arguelles was charged with a lesser crime because he only drove the car that carried the two other suspects to the holdup scene. A third man, Jose Duran Ramirez, is still being sought and is believed to be hiding in Mexico, authorities said.

Prosecutors described the summer holdup as a small-time crime pulled by three men who needed money to return to Mexico. But, during the holdup, prosecutors said, something went afoul.

Things went sour soon after the men entered the restaurant, situated on the north side of California 78, between El Camino Real and Jefferson Street. A fight broke out with the manager inside his office, during which Salinas was stabbed in the ribs, police said.

Moments later, Duran came into the room and stabbed Taber several times, police said. The manager’s throat was eventually slit.

Two teen-age janitors were also cut and tied up in the holdup. Hours later, they freed themselves and called police, who found Taber bound and stabbed to death on the floor of his office.

Taber, 36, who had been a manager at the restaurant for only six months, was stabbed 25 times about the neck and torso. An Oceanside police officer called the killing one of the most brutal he had seen in 20 years on the force.

Authorities said the thieves made off with about $2,000. After fleeing to Mexico, Salinas and Arguelles surrendered to authorities at the Otay Mesa border crossing.

Bob Zepeda, night manager at the Mexican restaurant, said neither he nor his employees were satisfied by the plea bargain. “The reaction here is pretty much one of anger,” he said.

“People are asking themselves why couldn’t it be more like 70 years in prison. This was a human life they took, and employees wanted him to go to prison for a long time--or even go to the chair.

“And then they get something like this. We’re just not satisfied. And I can only imagine what his (Taber’s) wife felt about it.”