New Trial Urged for Convicted Killer

Defense lawyers for a 27-year-old Oxnard man serving time for a deadly shooting in downtown Santa Barbara urged a judge Monday to overturn his conviction, citing the taped confession of another man.

But prosecutors insisted during closing arguments that they put the right person in state prison.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Hilary Dozer dismissed the “confession” as lies spun by a boastful gang member trying to take credit for a crime he didn’t commit.

“Who do you believe?” Dozer asked. “The trial evidence clearly shows Efren Cruz was responsible for this shooting.”

The arguments capped a 2 1/2-month court hearing over Cruz’s petition for a new trial.

Four years ago, a jury found Cruz guilty of murder in the slaying of 23-year-old Michael Torres and of the attempted murder of James Miranda, then 21, in a parking garage near State Street.

Cruz, an Army veteran and father of a 7-year-old girl, has already served more than four years of a sentence of 41 years to life and has exhausted his appeals.

But several months ago, Cruz filed a petition for release after investigators in Ventura County uncovered evidence that led them to conclude that Gerardo Reyes, Cruz’s cousin, was the killer.

The evidence chiefly consists of a secretly taped jailhouse confession obtained by an inmate informant who has known the 28-year-old Reyes since childhood.

During Monday’s closing arguments, defense attorney Kevin DeNoce cited nine separate admissions in which Reyes describes the shooting and takes credit for it.

DeNoce argued that those statements are corroborated by witness accounts, factual evidence in the case and previous admissions that Reyes made to relatives after the Jan. 25, 1997, shooting.

DeNoce also argued that Cruz did not receive a fair trial. He cited forensic tests showing that Cruz had gunpowder residue on his hands as “misleading.”

Cruz maintains he was standing near the gunman during the shooting, which is how the gunpowder residue might have gotten on his client, DeNoce said.

Dozer, however, told the judge there is no way Cruz could have gotten gunpowder on the back of his hands unless he pulled the trigger.

Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Frank Ochoa, who presided over Cruz’s original trial, is expected to take the matter under submission.

A ruling is expected in a few weeks.