Key Witness in Murder Trial Jailed to Ensure Testimony : Court: Prosecutors fear that the Santa Ana woman would flee rather than testify against a suspected gang member.

Laura Santana sat in County Jail on Thursday awaiting a trial. But it’s not her own.

Orange County prosecutors, employing a rarely used tactic to help ensure testimony from a key witness in a murder trial, requested that Santana, 20, be held in jail until the trial of a suspected gang member resumes.

Prosecutors in the murder trial of Evuardo Ortiz said they think the Santa Ana woman might flee rather than testify against a man charged in the drive-by killing of Santana’s 17-year-old cousin, Elizabeth Miranda, in January, 1991, along West Chestnut Avenue.

Santana, who told prosecutors that she fears retaliation, testified in early September against a second man charged in the killing, Thomas Rivas, 19. But a day after she started her testimony, Santana failed to show up in court, court records show.

Rivas, the suspected gunman, was convicted of murder last month and awaits sentencing in November, according to court records.

Santana was arrested Sept. 24 on a bench warrant issued after she failed to appear, and on Monday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark Sevigny asked a Superior Court judge to order her held in jail until Ortiz’s trial resumes Oct. 9, according to court documents.

“In essence, she’s the one who put herself in this position,” Sevigny said Thursday. “We are prosecuting the most serious offense that you can. If she disappears on us again, that’s a considerable problem. She is the crucial witness in the case.”

Santana, a mother of two, was being held in lieu of $20,000 bail. Her children are with relatives while she is in jail, Sevigny said.

Santana’s attorney, Douglas Unger, said that he did not want to comment on the case, fearing for his client’s safety.

“It’s a bad situation. I feel sorry for her,” Unger said.

The district attorney’s office dislikes going to such extremes to ensure that a witness will appear in court, said John Conley, assistant district attorney.

Of the approximately 100 homicide cases that the county district attorney’s office prosecutes each year, about six witnesses are jailed to ensure that they will show up in court, Conley said.

He said prosecutors first try to relocate a witness before ever contemplating jailing the person.

“We hate to do it. It’s the last possible resort,” Conley said.