Officials Seek to Free Man Found Guilty of Murder

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 in the shooting of 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 at 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 they say 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 that they had enough evidence to convince a jury that Cruz was the triggerman and that nothing they have seen since has persuaded 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.

Earlier this month, he 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 the inmate’s family in Oxnard, the new evidence has given them hope that Cruz, an Army veteran who has exhausted his appeals, could be freed.

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

The trouble started Jan. 25, 1997, after a confrontation in 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 in the bar and were ordered out separate 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 rang out. 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.

Gunshot Residue, Eyewitness Cited

Forensic tests later revealed that Cruz had gunshot 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 dirk or dagger.

At the sentencing hearing, Santa Barbara County Deputy Dist. Atty. Hilary Dozer argued that authorities would not tolerate such gang violence in their city. “We feel as a community we have to take a tough stand,” he said.

Ochoa, who was 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.”

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 shooting. Cruz is innocent, the informant told him, adding that Reyes is 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 he 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, 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.

A few weeks later, detectives and prosecutors from Ventura and Santa Barbara counties met in Oxnard to discuss the informant’s tip. It was agreed that if there was an investigation, it would be handled by the Oxnard Police Department, McMaster wrote in the declaration.

Informant Wears Wire in Cell

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.

Ventura County prosecutors agreed to seek early release from prison for the informant 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 admitted to the shooting. He said he grabbed a gun from his wife’s car and opened fire to protect his cousin, Cruz, from getting beaten in a fight.

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

Investigators then interviewed Cruz. He told them he didn’t see who fired the fatal rounds but 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.

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

“Based on the evidence we gathered, we have concluded that Gerardo Reyes, not Efren Cruz, killed Michael Torres,” Bradbury wrote in the Nov. 3, letter.

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

Months earlier Chaitin had filed an appeal of 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 that Reyes was the shooter.

But Ortiz gave a different story during the preliminary hearing, testifying that 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 new evidence, the 2nd District Court of Appeal upheld the conviction and the California Supreme Court declined to review it.

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.

Prosecutor 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 family is counting on it.

His mother, Adela Reyes, and his stepfather, Miguel Rivera, believe that 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 in her extended family by implicating her nephew.

“My son has been accused for something he didn’t do,” she said.