Guilty Verdict Urged as San Clemente’s 1st Gang Death Trial Opens

More than five years after San Clemente was hit by its first gang-related homicide, a prosecutor urged a judge Tuesday to find the accused triggerman guilty of murder.

Juan Jose Ramirez was arrested in Delaware on suspicion of murder on Nov. 18, 1994, four years after Roman C. Calvillo was shot to death outside a San Clemente restaurant in a slaying that underscored what authorities said was a growing gang problem in South County.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Gary Paer contended in a nonjury Superior Court trial Tuesday that the 1990 shooting at the Great Wall restaurant climaxed a night of taunting between rival San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano gangs.

The prosecutor said Ramirez, then 19, fired at least one shot inside the restaurant when bottles started flying, then ran outside and continued to shoot at the victim, who fell in the parking lot.

Defense attorney Robert Hartmann said Ramirez is not guilty of murder, having fired in self-defense during the confrontation after being mistaken as a San Juan Capistrano gang member by the 26-year-old victim, who was also a gang member.

He said Ramirez never intended to shoot anyone that night. He said the defendant took the gun as protection because his brother was working as a DJ for a dance at the restaurant, and the two had experienced fights and other problems around their equipment in the past.

“He hoped he would not have to use it,” Hartmann said, adding that Ramirez had fired the shots only in warning, not intending to hit anyone.

After the shooting, Ramirez fled first to Mexico and then to Delaware because he was afraid no one would believe his story, Hartmann said.

He was arrested four years later in Delaware when a patrol officer, responding to a call about disabled car without a license plate, ran a routine check and discovered the warrant.

The trial is being heard by Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan and is expected to conclude by the end of the week.