Relative Says Man Wrongly Jailed

Bolstering defense claims that Santa Barbara prosecutors put the wrong man in prison for a 1997 homicide, a cousin of the Oxnard man convicted in the killing testified that another relative admitted firing the fatal shots just hours after the slaying.

Rudy Ramos is a cousin through marriage both to Efren Cruz, who was convicted of the Santa Barbara shooting, and to 28-year-old Gerardo Reyes, the man defense attorneys believe is responsible.

“He said he just came from behind and shot one guy in the head and then shot a couple of more times,” Ramos said Reyes told him the morning after the Jan. 26, 1997, shooting.

Ramos’ testimony came during the first day of a hearing in Santa Barbara before Judge Frank Ochoa, who is considering whether Cruz’s conviction should be overturned.

A Santa Barbara jury found Cruz guilty of murdering 23-year-old Michael Torres and of the attempted murder of 21-year-old James Lee Miranda outside a State Street nightclub. Cruz, the father of a 7-year-old daughter, has already served more than four years of a 41-years-to-life sentence.

Last week, defense attorneys requested a hearing on the conviction in light of an alleged jailhouse confession from Reyes, an Oxnard gang member who is serving a 12-year sentence in an unrelated assault case.

Defense attorneys Kevin DeNoce and Phil Dunn say Reyes boasted about being the gunman to another inmate, an Oxnard man who is a regular informant to local authorities.

That man reported the information to police and volunteered to wear a wire during another conversation with Reyes, in which he again admitted to the shooting, attorneys said. The informant also alleged that Reyes asked him to have Cruz killed in prison.

Santa Barbara Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Hilary Dozer argued, however, that the right man is serving time for the slaying, noting that Cruz was found with gunpowder residue on both hands. He chalked up the jail confession to nothing more than posturing.

“This is just one gang member bragging to another gangster,” Dozer told the judge. “He wants to go [to prison] with status as a murderer so when he goes into the yard, he won’t be put upon.”

“If we thought we convicted an innocent person,” Dozer said later outside court, “we’d be the first ones down here saying, ‘Hey, wait a minute.’ But at this moment, our office isn’t prepared to say that, and we won’t let a convicted murderer just walk out of the door.”

In recent interviews with Santa Barbara police, Reyes recanted his confession and denied playing any role in the shooting.

Ramos testified that Cruz, 26, was living with him in Oxnard at the time of the shooting. When Cruz, who had been released from the Army a few weeks earlier, failed to return home after a night out with Reyes and friends, he and his wife, Veronica, went to Reyes’ Oxnard house, Ramos said.

It was there, Ramos said, that Reyes talked about a fight that broke out at the Santa Barbara nightclub. Reyes said he left the club and went to his wife’s car to retrieve a knit cap, gloves and revolver, Ramos said. He returned to find his friends and the men they were arguing with in the parking lot near the club. That’s when he fired, hitting one man in the head and another in the neck, Ramos said.

“He said blood went everywhere. . . . Then he just started running,” Ramos said.

Veronica Ramos later testified that she then drove her husband back into Oxnard, discarding his shirt along the way.

Rudy Ramos, who now lives in Texas with his family, said he was afraid of Reyes.

“I know him and I know what he can do,” Ramos said. “I’ve hung around him. He’s dangerous.”

Reyes’ wife also took the stand Monday and gave a sharply different version of the incident.

Valerie Reyes, who was granted immunity for her testimony, said it was Cruz who started the fight that evening. He was drunk, she said, and became angry at a group of men for staring at his girlfriend. Reyes said Cruz “pulled a blade out,” but her husband forced him to put the knife away and tried to act as a peacemaker with the other group.

“He tried to calm everyone down and told them Efren was just drunk,” she said.

She said the club’s bouncers then threw Cruz out of the bar. She said she was furious with Cruz because of his behavior and took it out on her husband, yelling at him and demanding to go home.

“I was just really upset,” Reyes said. “We weren’t even there half an hour and his cousin wanted to fight already.”

That’s when she and her husband went home, before the homicide took place, she said.

The incident has sharply divided the Reyes-Ramos family, some of whom appeared in court Monday clad in T-shirts picturing Cruz in his Army uniform. “Free Efren Cruz,” the T-shirts read. Outside court, Cruz’s mother, Adela Reyes, said that she’s hopeful her son will be released from prison, but she isn’t breathing easier just yet.

“I can’t be relieved until I see him out,” she said. “I hope to God there is finally justice. They’ve already kept my son for too many years.”

She was critical of prosecutors, whom she called too proud to admit a mistake.

“They don’t want to recognize they put the wrong man in jail because they don’t want to look bad,” she said. “But they did. They put the wrong man in jail.”

The case continues this week, during which defense attorneys will call Gerardo Reyes. He was in court Monday but declined to testify until prosecutors unexpectedly offered him immunity. Reyes’ attorney asked that his testimony be postponed until Wednesday to give him time to review evidence in the case.