Woman Fears Mate’s Killers Will Go Free : Justice: Sylvia Davalos has seen crumbling of case against reputed gang members accused of mistakenly shooting her husband dead, wounding her.

On Sylvia Davalos’ upper right arm, there are two welts of discolored scar tissue that mark the path of a bullet.

Davalos, 23, and her husband, Joel Davalos, both teacher’s aides, were the mistaken targets of gang violence last year while at an outdoor birthday party. Gunmen burst in and sprayed the back yard with 30 bullets from an AK-47 assault rifle and a 9-millimeter pistol, killing Joel Davalos and critically injuring his wife.

The shooting outraged Orange County residents and caused Santa Ana police to work around the clock to arrest the suspects. A year after the Feb. 3, 1992, shooting, the case prosecutors sought to build against the suspects has fallen apart, and Davalos fears her husband’s killers may never be punished.

“I wanted someone to be brought to justice, because I know that Joel would do the same if I were the one who died,” Sylvia Davalos said, her bright, dark eyes filling with tears. “I just feel betrayed.”

Police said the suspects were looking for member of a rival gang when they fired on the Davaloses and another couple. The other couple were shaken but not injured.

Three reputed gang members were arrested and charged with murder, attempted murder and assault. They are Artemio Rios, 22, Luis Arturo Plascencia, 20, and Ronald Lawrence Azevedo, 20, all of the Santa Ana area. An arrest warrant has been issued for a fourth suspect, Joseph Florencio Arvizu, 20, who remains at large.

All charges have been dropped because of insufficient evidence, with the most recent dismissal coming last month.

Police made the arrests with the help of a confidential informant, and searches uncovered a mini-arsenal of 10 weapons, including an assault rifle believed to have been used in the shootings.

Police also had Sylvia Davalos’ identification of Rios, and Azevedo’s statement to police admitting that he had driven the men to the area where the shooting took place.

But as the case proceeded in court, it was discovered that none of the seized weapons matched the murder weapons. Davalos’ identification was deemed “extremely tenuous,” and Azevedo’s statement lacked crucial corroboration, defense attorneys said.

The men continue to deny any involvement in the slaying, their attorneys said.

Santa Ana police referred questions about the case to prosecutors, but Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark A. Sevigny declined to discuss it, saying the shooting remains under investigation. Prosecutors could refile charges against the men, although Sevigny declined to comment on that possibility.

Sylvia Davalos said the failed case has made it more difficult for her to focus on returning to work and continuing her life without her best friend and first love. She is still troubled by dreams and has trouble sitting through action movies that were the couple’s favorite.

“Each day, I say I’m only going to think happy thoughts, and I start to remember a happy time with Joel, but then the daydream turns itself into a nightmare where somebody comes out and starts shooting,” Davalos said.

Defense attorneys for the men charged in the case say the system was put to the test and worked to their clients’ advantage.

“I don’t think anyone doesn’t feel that this was a horrible, tragic thing that happened to Sylvia, but you can’t convict someone when there isn’t any evidence,” said attorney Rudolph E. Loewenstein, who represented Plascencia.

Loewenstein said the only testimony against his client came from Azevedo’s statement to police.

But by law, such statements must be corroborated before they can be used as evidence. Charges were dismissed against Plascencia and Rios after their attorneys successfully argued that such factual evidence was lacking.

The courts consider such statements “inherently unreliable” to prevent suspects from turning on each other or accusing innocent people as a way to save their own skins, said constitutional law professor Ron Talmo of Western State University College of Law in Irvine.

“Cases involving statements of co-conspirators can be very difficult,” Talmo said.

Attorney Marlin Stapleton Jr., who represented Rios, said Sylvia Davalos’ identification of Rios was “tenuous” at best. Davalos disagreed but admits she did not have much time to study the assailants.

Ultimately, Azevedo’s own statement was apparently insufficient to implicate him. Orange County Superior Court Judge Everett W. Dickey dismissed charges against Azevedo in January after defense attorney Frederick McBride claimed in court documents that the statement to police was coerced.

According to court transcripts, Santa Ana Police Officer Jeff Launi testified during a court hearing that Azevedo admitted driving the men to a spot in Santa Ana. The men jumped out of the car and went down an alley and seconds later shots were fired, according to Azevedo’s statement to police.

When the men returned to the car, Azevedo said, he saw one of them with a gun. He said the air smelled like a “burnt match,” Launi testified.

“Jam, jam, I got one,” Azevedo quoted one of the men as saying, according to Launi.

McBride said Azevedo’s statement should not be considered an admission of guilt.

“I’m not saying at all that any of the men were guilty, but Mr. Azevedo did not witness a shooting and officials have no evidence to prove that he was anything more than a driver of a car,” McBride said.

During the months in which Sylvia Davalos has slowly recovered from her injuries, which caused her the loss of a kidney, she said she has grown frustrated with a legal process that seems to ignore the victim while benefiting the accused.

“I know they need proof and evidence, but one person says he was there--I just can’t understand how a judge can’t judge that,” Sylvia Davalos said.

Davalos now visits a therapist to deal with the grief of losing her husband. On the anniversary of his death, she visited his grave, an act she had found too painful in the past.

Memories of the shooting rush back to her at the strangest times, she said. She might be handing out papers to children in a classroom when she begins shaking uncontrollably.

Her most vivid recollection is the deafening sound of gunfire as she tried to crawl on hands and knees to safety when she was shot again in the side. She said she began screaming her husband’s name and when he didn’t reply, she mistakenly assumed that she was dead.

“I guess it was like a war. When I first got hit I really thought it was a rock, but then I saw sparkles coming from the gun and I couldn’t believe it, I was being shot,” Sylvia Davalos said.

“I know I’m lucky I’m a survivor, but it still hurts that justice hasn’t been done,” Davalos said. “The people who did this know what they did. I don’t know how they can live with it.”