Judge Keeps Murder Case Witness in Jail

A Superior Court judge dropped contempt charges against a reluctant murder witness Tuesday, but ordered that the woman remain in custody, saying society’s needs had to be balanced with the woman’s concern for her safety.

Laura Santana, 20, a key witness in the drive-by shooting of her 17-year-old cousin, Elizabeth Miranda, was returned to Orange County Jail, where she has been held in protective custody since last month on $20,000 bail.

On Sept. 24, after failing to return to the trial of the first of two men charged with the slaying, Santana was arrested on a bench warrant for contempt and held as a material witness.

In court Tuesday, Santana told Superior Court Judge Ronald E. Owen that after she testified for the prosecution in the murder trial of 19-year-old Thomas Rivas, she was visited at her home by gang members who told her not to return to court, where she was subject to recall by Rivas’ defense.

The gang members said “they would kill my kids,” a weeping Santana said, referring to her two small children.

Santana avoided police who came to her home several times, and Rivas--described by prosecutors as the driver of the car involved in the shooting--was subsequently convicted of the November, 1991, murder, according to authorities.

Eduardo Ortiz, whom prosecutors said was the gunman, is scheduled for trial later this month.

Santana’s attorney, Douglas Unger, asked the judge to free Santana and station a Santa Ana Police patrol in front of the house she shares with her husband, children and parents, after Santana said she would testify at the Ortiz trial. Unger said Santana was willing to wear an electronic monitoring device to ensure she would not flee.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark Sevigny told the judge that, while he understood Santana’s concern for her safety, her testimony was critical to his case against Ortiz and he couldn’t risk another failure to appear.

Judge Owen agreed, saying he had to balance society’s needs against those of Santana, whom he described as “basically an innocent citizen, a victim herself.”

The prosecution’s case could be jeopardized, he said, and “society has a right to be protected from individuals shooting up the streets.”

Owen then dropped the contempt charge, but adding that if he did free Santana, “something may happen to you, and I’d never forgive myself for that.”

Unger said that jailing his client to protect her and ensure her testimony “sends the wrong message to other victims of violent crimes.”