VAN NUYS : Employees Testify on Fatal Shooting at Store

A group of supermarket employees testified Friday about a delivery truck driver who was fatally shot in the head when he failed to respond to an order by robbers.

The testimony came during a lengthy and often-interrupted preliminary hearing for Jose Santillan, 19, of Pacoima who is charged with murder in the Oct. 16 robbery at a Ralphs grocery store at 7225 Woodman Ave.

Robert Ward, 28, of Palmdale, was on the phone only a few feet from a group of employees and customers when the two robbers ordered him to hang up the phone.

“I saw one of the men put the gun to his head and pull the trigger,” said George Pisano, one of the employees.

Ward never responded to the orders to get off the phone, leading authorities to believe he had no idea that a robbery was in progress.

Pisano tentatively identified Santillan as the gunman, but four other witnesses could not.

Five other witnesses to the robbery are scheduled to testify Wednesday. Santillan’s preliminary hearing began nearly three months ago and is expected to wrap up in early July.

Santillan, who faces 21 felony counts, and two other men still at large, are charged in a two-month crime spree that targeted supermarkets in the San Fernando Valley. The alleged accomplices have twice been featured on national television crime shows, but they have not been caught.