Trial Begins in Slaying of Santa Paula Shopkeeper

Alfredo Hernandez shot and killed Mirna Regollar after the Santa Paula shopkeeper triggered a silent alarm, Deputy Dist. Atty. Don Glynn said Friday during opening statements in Hernandez’s murder trial.

But defense attorney Robert Schwartz argued there are no fingerprints or weapons linking his client to the slaying because, Schwartz said, Hernandez was not there.

“There is not a drop of physical or scientific evidence at all to say that Fred Hernandez was in the store on June 2, 1998,” Schwartz said.

Glynn said he will show that Hernandez and Jose “Pepe” Castillo entered Junior’s Market that morning planning to rob the store. But when the two friends saw Regollar press the alarm button, they fired their guns, Glynn said.

“That’s when Freddie shot her in the head and Pepe shot her in the back,” Glynn said.

Hernandez, 22, of Santa Paula is accused of murder, attempted robbery and commercial burglary, charges that could bring him life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Castillo pleaded guilty earlier this year to planning the holdup and shooting Regollar. But prosecutors say Hernandez fired the fatal shot to her head. Castillo decided to testify against Hernandez after prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty against him.

Castillo, who is being detained at an undisclosed location, is one of the prosecution’s key witnesses.

During a preliminary hearing in May, Castillo said he gave Hernandez a loaded .22-caliber revolver and stuffed a .32-caliber semiautomatic into his own pocket before heading to the market.

Castillo also said he and Hernandez shot Regollar and fled the store without taking any money from the register. Hernandez was living in Castillo’s garage on Virginia Terrace in Santa Paula at the time of the killing.

Schwartz, one of two attorneys defending Hernandez, called Castillo the “son of Satan” and said his testimony cannot be trusted because of his deal with the prosecution. Castillo also has a criminal record, Schwartz said, citing Castillo’s fatal stabbing of Ventura teen Jesse Strobel in 1993.

During the opening statements, Hernandez, clad in a black suit, sat attentively, with his mother and stepfather behind him. The stepfather, who declined to give his full name, said he has faith the jury will find Hernandez not guilty. “We hope the truth comes out. He wasn’t there.”

Across the courtroom, Eligio Regollar, the victim’s husband, wept as he listened to the testimony. “I hope that all goes well and that they find him guilty and that he’s punished like he should be,” Regollar said after court recessed.

Mirna Regollar, the 25-year-old mother of two small children, was taking nursing classes at Ventura College and working full time at the store she and her husband owned. Eligio Regollar sold the shop soon after the killing.

The prosecution, which called its first witnesses immediately after opening statements, plans to call Castillo and an informant, Rene Moreno, to the stand next week.

Moreno testified in the preliminary hearing that he went to Castillo’s house soon after the attempted robbery and that both Castillo and Hernandez admitted shooting Regollar.

Moreno, who is now in a witness protection program under a new name, also cut a deal with the prosecution. Months after the shooting, Moreno agreed to wear a recording device to obtain statements from both Castillo and Hernandez in return for the district attorney’s help in reducing sentences on two of his own crimes.

Schwartz said Moreno cannot be believed either because, he said, Moreno was trying to avoid jail time. He also said that during the conversations with Moreno, Hernandez denied being involved in the shooting. Schwartz said the prosecution’s case “has more holes in it than a pound of Swiss cheese.”

Prosecution witness Sylvia Sandez testified Friday she heard two shots and saw two people running around the corner. But she said she could not identify whether they were male or female.

Testimony is expected to resume Monday morning before Judge Ken Riley in Superior Court.