Witness Tells How Worker Gunned Down Boss

Employees of a San Marcos manufacturing firm testified Wednesday that a 22-year-old co-worker shot his supervisor twice in the chest, turned to fire at another boss, and then shot the first man again, this time twice in the head while he lay still, face down in the cement.

In the first day of testimony in the murder trial of Jose Luis Maldonado, the prosecutor paraded witnesses onto the stand who told how the Oceanside resident had, without saying a word to anyone, gunned down Juan Lopez in the parking lot of the San Marcos industrial park.

“He just pulled (out) the gun, he got it ready and he aimed at Juan,” said Gumaro Lopez, who was walking next to Juan Lopez at the time.

Maldonado, who is being held on $1-million bail, is accused of first-degree murder in shooting Lopez during a coffee break last January at the orthopedic manufacturing firm where they worked. He also is charged with attempting to murder Adrian Flores, one of his supervisors. Flores escaped injury in the shooting.

Maldonado has pleaded both not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. The double plea means there will be two trials, the first to determine if Maldonado is guilty of murder and attempted murder. If found guilty, there will be a second trial before the same jury to address only the issue of his sanity at the time.

Witnesses testified that, on Jan. 29, Maldonado had been eating breakfast by himself on one side of the parking lot during the company’s mid-morning break, as he usually did. With the 15-minute break nearly over, people began filing back into the building, they said.

It is then that Maldonado pulled out a .22-caliber semi-automatic handgun and opened fire on Lopez, who was standing just a few feet away, witnesses testified.

Lopez fell forward, his hands clutching his chest and he lay still, witnesses said.

Then, Maldonado turned his attention to the other workers, some of whom were fleeing.

“I saw Maldonado chasing the other guys . . . he was chasing them with the gun,” said Zenaida Robinson, who worked side-by-side with Maldonado in the company’s packaging department.

Gumaro Lopez testified that Maldonado shot at Flores once, and then returned to Lopez and “executed” him by shooting him twice in the head.

Robinson sobbed on the stand as she was shown a picture of Lopez’ body face down on the ground, his head in a pool of blood.

Robinson, who looked at Maldonado only when asked to identify him for the court record, also testified that Maldonado had brought the gun to work two or three weeks before the shooting.

“I was right next to him at the packaging table. It was wrapped in his jacket . . . and I took a glance at it, and I asked him what was that, and he told me it was just a toy,” Robinson said.

She testified that, shortly after they started their work on the day of the shooting, Maldonado said that “somebody is going to go down,” and looked at Lopez at the time. She also said she saw Maldonado with the gun two hours before the shooting.

Public defender John Jimenez took the day’s testimony in stride, saying that no evidence has been shown to indicate what motive Maldonado might have for the shooting.

“Because there is no motive,” Jimenez said outside the courtroom, “it’s purely a matter of shooting without deliberation nor predisposition.”

Jimenez said Maldonado suffers from “a mental disorder that prevented him from harboring malice.”

Maldonado has been receiving medication and has been under the care of a psychiatrist since his arrest, said Jimenez, who declined to specify the nature of the disorder or the type of medication.

Jimenez said he will bring in three psychiatrists to testify about Maldonado’s state of mind. Deputy Dist. Atty. Greg Walden said two court-appointed doctors have examined Maldonado and will testify on behalf of the prosecution.