D.A. Seeks Prisoner’s Release in Murder Case

Ventura County prosecutors are driving an effort to free an Oxnard man they believe was wrongly convicted of murder in Santa Barbara, sparking a dispute between authorities in the neighboring coastal counties.

Efren Cruz, 26, was found guilty of murder, attempted murder and other charges for gunning down two men during a gang-related melee in a downtown Santa Barbara parking garage four years ago.

But new evidence uncovered by an Oxnard police detective and investigators with the Ventura County district attorney’s office tells a different story.

Last summer, they obtained a secretly taped confession from an Oxnard gang member who admits pulling the trigger and letting Cruz take the fall.

Ventura County prosecutors notified their counterparts in Santa Barbara and Cruz’s appellate attorney, who filed a petition seeking his release from state prison.

But Santa Barbara prosecutors aren’t backing down. They contend they had enough evidence to convince a jury that Cruz was the triggerman, and nothing they have seen has convinced them otherwise.

“Do I think we got the right man? I think the evidence persuaded the jury beyond a reasonable doubt,” said Santa Barbara County Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Jerry Franklin, who is handling the petition filed by Cruz.

The petition, along with stacks of transcripts and declarations prepared by Ventura County authorities, landed on the desk of Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Frank Ochoa in late January. Ochoa presided over the high-profile trial three years ago.

Earlier this month, the judge issued an order asking prosecutors to tell him why the petition should not be granted. Franklin plans to file a response by April 2.

“I can say this: If everything that is alleged in the petition is true, the petition for writ would be well-taken,” he said. But he added: “I think there will be a contested hearing, because we believe what is alleged may not be true.”

For Cruz’s family in Oxnard, the new evidence has given them hope that Cruz, an Army veteran who has exhausted his appeals, could be freed from state prison.

“We want to fight, we want justice,” said Marisela Toledo, Cruz’s aunt. “We just need someone to help us.”

2 People Shot in Public Parking Garage

The trouble started on Jan. 25, 1997, following a confrontation inside a nightclub on State Street. According to court records, this is what happened:

Two groups of young men--some linked to a gang in Oxnard, others to a gang in Santa Barbara--exchanged words inside the bar and were ordered out different exits by security.

Outside, the Oxnard men continued to challenge the Santa Barbara group by flashing gang signs and yelling “Colonia.” The taunts escalated inside a city parking garage at Anacapa and Ortega streets.

Someone from the Oxnard group pulled a gun. Shots were fired. Michael Torres, a 23-year-old Santa Barbara resident, died of a gunshot wound to the head. Santa Ynez resident James Miranda, 21, suffered a neck wound, but recovered.

Police searched the garage shortly after the shooting and found a chrome .38-caliber revolver on the second floor. They also found Efren Cruz. His friends had fled the scene.

Forensic tests later revealed Cruz had gunpowder residue on his hands, and a driver leaving Lot No. 10 identified him as the shooter.

Police rounded up three additional suspects, and they were all charged with murder.

At the end of a preliminary hearing, Cruz and a second suspect, Leo Gonzalez, were held to answer murder charges. Two other defendants, including Cruz’s cousin, Gerardo Reyes, were discharged.

Seven months later, Gonzalez pleaded no contest to being an accessory to assault, and the other charges against him were dropped.

Cruz went to trial alone. He took the stand and denied shooting Torres and Miranda. He said he heard gunshots whiz by his ear and raised his hands to shield himself.

The jury initially deadlocked, but after further deliberations found Cruz guilty of second-degree murder, attempted murder and carrying a concealed dagger. Jurors also found the crimes were gang-related.

At the sentencing hearing, Santa Barbara County Deputy Dist. Atty. Hilary Dozer argued that it was a vicious crime. Evidence showed that the Oxnard group had kicked the two victims after they were shot. Dozer said authorities would not tolerate such gang violence in their city.

“We’ve had cases over the years dealing with [the Oxnard gang], acts of violence up here, and we feel as a community we have to take a tough stand on them,” he said.

Ochoa, the trial judge, sentenced Cruz to 41 years to life in prison and scolded him for committing such a senseless crime.

“I know in my heart that I did not shoot nobody,” Cruz said at the hearing, according to news accounts. “The Lord will find the guilty one soon. It was not me who shot. If I was the one who did it, may I burn in hell.”

Informant Says Reyes, Not Cruz, Was Shooter

A year after Cruz’s sentencing, Oxnard Police Det. Dennis McMaster received a letter from a police informant who said he had information about the Santa Barbara Lot 10 shootings.

Cruz was innocent, the informant told him, Reyes was the real killer.

The informant--who was serving time for armed robbery at the same prison as Cruz--went on to say that Reyes wanted Cruz “taken care of” because he was worried Cruz would tell authorities the truth, according to court documents.

The informant volunteered to wear a recording device to obtain a statement from Reyes, a fellow Oxnard gang member, records show.

“Because [the informant] had been reliable in the past, I took seriously what he told me about this matter,” McMaster wrote in a sworn declaration filed in support of Cruz’s petition.

McMaster contacted Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Bill Haney, who told him to call Dozer in Santa Barbara because it was his case.

At first, Dozer seemed receptive to the proposed wire operation, McMaster wrote, but “almost immediately thereafter appeared to be unenthusiastic.”

A few weeks later, detectives and prosecutors from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties met in Oxnard to discuss the informant’s tip.

“At that meeting, the Santa Barbara people seemed to state that this appeared to be a conspiracy on the part of Gerardo Reyes, [the informant] and Efren Cruz to get Efren Cruz released,” McMaster wrote in the declaration.

“It was finally agreed at this meeting [that] if there was to be an investigation, that investigation would be handled by the Oxnard Police Department,” he wrote.

Eventually, McMaster turned to Ventura County prosecutors for help and they arranged for the informant’s transfer to the Ventura County Jail, where Reyes, at the time, was in custody after being arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

During an Aug. 22, 2000, interview with district attorney investigator Dan Thompson, the informant said he had known Reyes a long time and could get him to admit on tape to the Lot 10 shootings.

The informant signed a contract with Ventura County prosecutors, who agreed to seek his early release from prison in exchange for his cooperation.

Three days later, investigators wired the informant and put him in a holding cell with Reyes at the Ventura County courthouse.

During the conversation, transcripts show, Reyes repeatedly admits to the shooting. He says he grabbed a gun from his wife’s car and opened fire to protect his cousin, Cruz, from getting beat in a fight.

“I did it,” Reyes says, according to transcripts of the conversation. “I didn’t do it for myself, homie, I did it for him.”

Investigators then interviewed Cruz. They warned him that their objective was not to help him but to find out what happened that night in Santa Barbara.

“Our job is not to get you out,” Thompson said. “Our job is to get the truth.”

Cruz told investigators he didn’t see who fired the fatal rounds, but he suspected it was Reyes because he had given his cousin a gun earlier that night.

Cruz also told authorities that while he and his cousin were in Santa Barbara County Jail, Reyes admitted shooting Torres.

“He said he did it for me,” Cruz told authorities, according to interview transcripts. “He said that I was gonna get beat up by a bunch of guys and that he has no other choice but to run over there and start shooting ‘em.”

According to the transcripts, Cruz also told investigators that Reyes threatened him and told him to keep quiet. Cruz admitted lying during his trial, saying he feared Reyes.

Cruz’s Girlfriend Stated Reyes Was the Shooter

In November, Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury wrote a letter to Santa Barbara County Dist. Atty. Thomas W. Sneddon regarding the informant’s tip.

“With your concurrence we conducted a thorough investigation into this information,” Bradbury wrote. “Based on the evidence we gathered we have concluded that Gerardo Reyes, not Efren Cruz, killed Michael Torres.”

A copy of the letter was sent to Cruz’s appellate attorney, Leonard Chaitin, who subsequently filed the petition for writ of habeas corpus.

Months earlier--while investigators were pursuing the informant tip--Chaitin filed an appeal to Cruz’s conviction, arguing in part that jurors should have been allowed to consider a statement from his client’s girlfriend, Valerie Ortiz, who told a defense investigator Reyes was the shooter.

But Ortiz gave a different story during the preliminary hearing, testifying she didn’t see the person holding the gun. She refused to testify at trial and the statement to the investigator was ruled inadmissible.

Unaware of the informant tip, the second appellate district upheld the conviction and the California Supreme Court declined to review.

Last week, lawyers involved in the case refused to comment on the recent developments.

Ventura County Chief Assistant Dist. Atty. Greg Totten would say only that his office investigated the tip at the request of Santa Barbara County prosecutors and forwarded its findings to that office.

Franklin said that from what he knows of the Cruz case, the jury’s verdict was appropriate.

“But as we all know,” he added, “what seems to be the case can be turned on its head in light of new evidence.”

Cruz’s immediate family is counting on it.

His mother, Adela Reyes, and his stepfather, Miguel Rivera, believe Cruz was in the wrong place at the wrong time and too scared to come forward with the truth.

They say Cruz was not a troublemaker, or a gang member, but an honorably discharged soldier who had enrolled in Oxnard College just weeks before the shooting.

Now, Adela Reyes is pinning her hopes on the petition--even as it drives a wedge between her extended family by implicating her nephew.

“My son has been accused for something he didn’t do,” she said. “I know we are going to go through a lot of fighting, but we are going to be together and we are going to fight to the end.”