Woman’s Son, 8, Testifies in Freeway Ramp Killing

An 8-year-old boy testified Monday that he heard a loud noise when his mother was shot but that he never saw a gun or the men who allegedly killed her through the window of the family’s car on an Interstate 15 on-ramp.

The testimony came on the first day of trial for two men accused of murdering his mother. The men, who were standing near a broken-down taxi partly blocking the Market Street on-ramp, approached the family car asking for jumper cables, according to the testimony.

Brian Ray Fletcher, 23, and Terrance Kent Moord, 30, are charged with first-degree murder, attempted robbery and a residential robbery. During their first trial, the jury split, 11 to 1, in favor of guilt.

Speaking through an interpreter, Ruben Estrada said two men approached the driver’s side of the car, where his mother, 33-year-old Maria Guadalupe Estrada, was sitting. She had stopped on the on-ramp June 20, 1991, after she and her family saw the broken-down taxi.

The boy could not identify the two men who shot his mother in the head but was able to tell the colors of their clothes, their hair styles and that one of the men had a darker complexion.

The victim’s mother, Theresa Huizar, who sat in the passenger seat during the shooting, told the court through an interpreter that she told her daughter the two men approaching their car were “bad people.”

“When she put her foot on the accelerator, that’s when I heard the sound,” said Huizar, who testified that her daughter was about to drive away when she was shot. Although she was sitting next to the victim, Huizar made no mention of seeing the gun or the assailants.

Estrada managed to drive around the taxi and onto the freeway. She passed out behind the wheel after driving about a quarter of a mile, and her brother stopped the vehicle with the emergency brake.