PACOIMA : Man to Stand Trial in Robberies, Killing

A Pacoima man was ordered to stand trial Wednesday for a series of armed robberies at San Fernando Valley supermarkets culminating with the slaying of a delivery truck driver.

Municipal Judge Jessica Perrin Silvers ordered that Jose Santillan be arraigned in Superior Court on July 14 on 20 counts of robbery and one count of murder.

Silvers threw out a special circumstance allegation related to the Oct. 19 killing of Robert Ward Jr. that could have sent Santillan to the gas chamber.

Ward, a 28-year-old Palmdale man, apparently did not know a robbery was in progress at a Ralphs supermarket in Van Nuys as he was making a phone call to his fiance. When ordered off the phone by the robbers, he waved them off, and one man shot him in the back of the head, according to testimony at Santillan’s lengthy preliminary hearing.

“We are going to concede at this time that the defendant was not the one with the gun,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Shellie Samuels said.

Because prosecutors could not conclusively demonstrate that Santillan was the gunman in Ward’s murder, the judge could not find the intent to kill required for a special circumstance, which carries a sentence of either death or life in prison without parole.

If convicted of first-degree murder because he was an active participant in a crime that led to the death, Santillan would face a sentence of 25 years to life.

Santillan is charged along with two other men still at large in connection with a monthlong crime spree that targeted supermarkets in the San Fernando Valley.

The alleged accomplices have twice been featured on national television crime shows. Santillan is being held without bail in County Jail.