Santa Ana : Group Presses for New Look at Murder Case

A group calling itself the Thomas Rodriguez Justice Committee, named after a 17-year-old gang member killed in a drive-by shooting last year, criticized the justice system and the city’s Police Department at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting.

Members of the group told the council that the police did not conduct a thorough investigation of the shooting, and that too few members of the jury--only one, they said--was Latino.

In May, two Santa Ana gang members were acquitted of murder and attempted murder in the shooting, in part because of conflicting testimony from eyewitnesses, according to defense attorneys. Another Santa Ana resident, 26-year-old Ramon Martinez, was paralyzed in the March, 1994, shooting.

The group called on the City Council to investigate the shooting again and to write a letter to the Orange County Grand Jury urging that more Latinos sit on juries.

The council “needs to be aware that the jury system is not representing the demographics of the city,” which is heavily Latino, Seferino Garcia, the committee’s leader, said in an interview.

Deputy Public Defender Mark Davis, who represented one of the defendants in the case, disputed the notion that police did not conduct a thorough investigation.

“They didn’t have the proof, and my client didn’t do it,” said Davis, who did not attend the council meeting but spoke about the case in an interview before the meeting.