Shootout Suspect Is Granted a Hearing

Courts: Alejandro Garcia is already indicted in the August beach incident. Prosecution refuses to fully explain unusual tactic.

In an unusual legal development, the only defendant in a shootout at a crowded Ventura beach will be granted a preliminary hearing even though he has already been indicted by the county grand jury.

Alejandro Garcia, who has yet to enter pleas to a variety of felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from the August shooting, is scheduled for a preliminary hearing Dec. 3. He remains in the Ventura County Jail with bail set at $100,000.

Prosecutors claim Garcia, 19, initiated a shootout between rival Santa Paula gang members at Ventura Harbor’s south jetty.

Deputy Public Defender Todd R. Howeth says Garcia fired his gun only because he feared the gang members he saw on the beach would kill him. Howeth said he intends to prove at the preliminary hearing that Garcia is not a gang member.

A preliminary hearing is held in felony cases to determine if there is enough evidence against a defendant to justify a trial. Prosecutors argue that an indictment serves the same purpose, and they have successfully fought defense attempts to hold preliminary hearings for defendants who have been indicted.

Defense attorneys prefer preliminary hearings because indictments are the result of secret grand jury hearings, and witnesses who testify against defendants are not cross-examined.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kim G. Gibbons refused to say why his office is deviating from the normal procedure in Garcia’s case, except to say problems arose after the indictment was handed down.

“We just feel that there are unusual legal circumstances in this case and to protect the record, we want to do it in this case only,” Gibbons said. “It has nothing to do with the evidence in the case.”

Garcia is the only defendant in the shootout who is still charged. Three other onetime suspects in the case have gone free.