Witness Says Inmate Confessed

A jailhouse informant testified Tuesday that an Oxnard gang member confessed to pulling the trigger in a deadly Santa Barbara shooting five years ago and then letting his younger cousin take the fall.

Peter Zuniga, an Oxnard gang member turned police informant, told a judge that fellow gang member Gerardo Reyes admitted to the shooting during a secretly taped conversation at the Ventura jail last summer.

Zuniga testified that Reyes trusted him and openly discussed the crime for which Reyes’ cousin, Efren Cruz, was convicted.

Zuniga, who is serving an 11-year prison term for robbery, said he agreed to wear a wire to record Reyes in hopes of shortening his sentence. But he also said he did it because he believes Cruz, with whom he once shared a prison cell, is innocent.

“When we’re in prison, we all say we’re innocent,” Zuniga testified. “But I believed him. . . . I did what I thought was right.”

The testimony gets to the heart of this hotly contested hearing in Santa Barbara County Superior Court over whether Cruz was wrongly convicted of murder and attempted murder.

Three years ago, a jury determined Cruz killed Michael Torres, 23, of Santa Barbara, and seriously wounded Jaime Miranda, then 21, of Santa Ynez, during a melee at a downtown Santa Barbara parking garage in January 1997.

Shots were fired after two groups of men--some from rival Oxnard and Santa Barbara gangs--exchanged words at a State Street bar and continued the altercation at a nearby parking garage.

Police arrested Cruz, a 26-year-old Army veteran, and recovered a revolver at the scene. Cruz had gunpowder residue on his hands, and he was later identified by a witness as the shooter. After his conviction, he was sentenced to 41 years to life in prison.

Prisoner Says He Was Asked to Stab Cellmate

Two years after his sentencing, Cruz was sent to Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, where he shared a cell with Zuniga.

On Tuesday, the stocky informant, dressed in a bright orange jail jumpsuit, told Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Frank Ochoa that Cruz told him “he went down for something his cousin did.”

Zuniga told the judge he thought Cruz was telling the truth. Right after the shooting, he said, rumors were flying around Zuniga’s Oxnard neighborhood that Reyes was the real shooter--not Cruz. Zuniga testified that he thought Reyes, who has a lengthy criminal record, was a more likely suspect.

“There’s been a lot of things he’s done,” Zuniga said of Reyes. “I’ve seen him shoot at people.”

After talking to Cruz about the Santa Barbara homicide, Zuniga wrote a letter to Reyes saying Cruz was blaming him for the murder. Zuniga said he asked Reyes whether he wanted him to “take care of” the cousin in exchange for drugs, and Reyes responded by asking Zuniga to stab Cruz, Zuniga testified.

Zuniga then wrote a letter to Oxnard Police Det. Dennis McMaster, for whom he had once worked as an informant, and said he had information about the shooting. Eventually, Zuniga agreed to wear a recording device and was moved to the Ventura jail where Reyes was being held on an unrelated case.

Last August, Zuniga cut a deal with the Ventura County district attorney’s office, which pursued the investigation on behalf of Santa Barbara County prosecutors. Zuniga agreed to obtain recorded statements from Reyes in exchange for a reduced prison sentence.

While waiting in a holding cell on Aug. 25, Zuniga and Reyes talked about the shooting and Reyes admitted “a couple of times” to wielding the murder weapon, Zuniga testified.

“I was scared,” Zuniga testified. “I just wanted to get out of there.”

As a result of the taped confession, Ventura County prosecutors notified their counterparts in Santa Barbara that “credible information” existed to show Reyes--not Cruz--killed Torres.

But Santa Barbara prosecutors say they put the correct man behind bars. They have challenged the credibility of the taped confession--the key piece of evidence in defense lawyers’ attempt to overturn Cruz’s conviction.

Tuesday afternoon, Santa Barbara County Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Hilary Dozer began his cross-examination of Zuniga by raising questions about the informant’s credibility and motives.

Zuniga acknowledged he has been an associate of a Mexican prison gang and committed assaults at the behest of the gang.

Zuniga also admitted that he approached authorities with information about Cruz’s case mainly because he hoped to curry favor and have his prison sentence reduced.

He further testified that while at Pelican Bay, he and Cruz discussed ways in which to overturn Cruz’s conviction and got the idea of wearing a wire while watching a TV show on law enforcement.

Prosecutors have suggested that Reyes, who has subsequently denied any role in the shooting, knew the informant was wired and was involved in a scheme to get Cruz out of prison. Dozer has alternately theorized that Reyes was either posturing or coerced by Zuniga into making statements about the shooting.

Last week, Reyes, who is serving a 12-year prison sentence for an unrelated assault, refused to testify in his cousin’s case despite having been offered immunity from prosecutors. He returned to court briefly Tuesday and again refused to answer questions.

Ochoa held him in contempt of court for a second time and sentenced him to seven days in Santa Barbara County Jail, which he has already served. Testimony is scheduled to resume today.