Teen Recalls Shots, Seeing Slain Friend

The murder trial of a 16-year-old Oxnard youth accused of gunning down another teenager got underway Tuesday as prosecutors called their first witness.

Fourteen-year-old Juvencio Alarcon told the jury that on the night of May 20, 1996, he heard a series of rapid gunshots before finding his friend, Ralph Rico Jr., lying face down on the sidewalk.

Alarcon, also known as Junior, said he did not see the shooting and did not see anyone on the street outside his home before it occurred.

But he told the jury that he remembers hearing five shots ring out in his South Winds Oxnard neighborhood before his friend was killed.

“I was running outside,” Alarcon testified, recalling in a soft voice his own actions after the shooting. “But my dad wouldn’t let me.”

Restrained by his father, Alarcon said, he looked out a bedroom window and saw Rico collapsed on the sidewalk. The boy died of gunshot wounds to his chest.

At 14, Rico was one of the youngest victims of homicide in Ventura County last year. He was also among the many victims of escalating gang violence in the South Winds neighborhood.

His accused killer, Albert Madueno, is likewise one of the county’s youngest murder defendants. Madueno was only 15 when Rico was killed.

Relatives of the slain boy said he was trying to avoid the gangs that plague the neighborhood.

In contrast, Madueno testified at a fitness hearing in juvenile court last November that he took credit for the slaying because he wanted to impress older gang members. However, he denied taking part in the killing.

In his opening statement Tuesday, Deputy Public Defender Gary Windom told jurors that at the end of the case, estimated to last three weeks, they should find his client guilty of being stupid--but not of being a killer.