16-Year-Old Faces Murder Trial as Adult

A 16-year-old Oxnard boy must be tried as an adult on charges that he murdered another boy in a gang-related shooting, a Ventura County judge ruled Thursday.

Albert Madueno, a gang member, slumped in his courtroom chair as Superior Court Judge Melinda Johnson deemed him unfit to be tried as a juvenile for the May 21 slaying of 14-year-old Ralph David Rico Jr.

Then Madueno trudged back to a holding cell to be returned to Ventura County Juvenile Hall until this afternoon, when he is to be arraigned in Municipal Court on charges of murder and use of a firearm.

Rico was shot on the sidewalk outside his aunt’s house in Oxnard’s South Winds neighborhood.

Witnesses told police that he had been chatting with a friend for two hours. The friend left, and moments later, a teenager walked up and shot Rico several times in the chest, then fled in a dark brown, four-door compact car.

A few days later, Madueno testified Thursday, he claimed falsely that he was the one who shot Rico. He had been trying to evade juvenile authorities for about a month after walking away from a foster home, and was looking for a place to stay.

Madueno told the court that when he met an older member of his gang named Nick, he tried to impress him by telling of his exploits on the street.

“After awhile, I could see he thinks that I killed Ralph Rico. He said that he heard it on the street,” Madueno said. He told Nick he used a .38-caliber gun, and “I told him I shot him several times in the chest and I shot him twice in the head.”

Madueno got the details from issues of two local newspapers, including the Oxnard Press-Courier, he testified.

“You were making up this story so Nick would give you a place to stay?” asked Deputy Public Defender James Harmon.

“To make him think I’m something,” Madueno answered.

Psychologist Cliff Sabath testified that gang members often exaggerate. “Well, basically all teenagers lie, that’s just sort of a fact of life,” said Sabath, who concluded that Madueno did not fit guidelines for a juvenile trial.

“In gang culture, there’s pressure to present oneself as a tough guy, a guy to be feared, because it’s a way to get respect,” Sabath said. “They’ll lie to try to enhance their position amongst their friends.”

Then, Madueno’s sister and her boyfriend took turns on the stand, testifying that he spent the night of May 21 watching videos at her house, and then sleeping on her couch.

Cynthia Ramirez testified that her younger brother was still asleep on the couch when she got up the next morning, and could not have used the car during the night because she had the keys.

That alibi and other evidence meant the case is not strong enough to justify any trial, let alone one in adult court, Harmon argued.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald Glynn argued that Madueno had lied on the stand, plainly getting one fact wrong: the Oxnard Press-Courier folded in 1994.

Madueno is being held in lieu of $250,000 bail.