Gang Member Found Guilty in 1999 Killing

For three anguishing years, the family of slain El Rio teenager Frankie Miramontez waited in frustration for detectives to piece together a case against a gang member known throughout their working-class community as the killer who had senselessly shot the youth in the head.

They waited for witnesses to come forward despite fears of gang retaliation. And they waited for justice after prosecutors eventually put the case before a jury.

On Tuesday, their wait ended.

After four hours of deliberation, a Ventura County jury found gang member Marcus Moralez guilty of first-degree murder, street terrorism and related gang and weapons allegations for shooting Miramontez three days before Christmas in 1999.

Seated in the courtroom, Maria Miramontez, the 17-year-old victim’s mother, closed her eyes and gripped the hands of her two sisters as Superior Court Judge Rebecca Riley announced the decision. She began to sob loudly and then left the courtroom as the judge finished reading the verdict forms.

Jay Flores, Maria Miramontez’s brother and an El Rio resident, told reporters outside the courtroom that the verdicts confirmed what the family had long suspected, and should serve as a warning to other gang members in the small community near Oxnard.

“If you choose this life, there is a consequence,” Flores said, his arm wrapped around his sister. “He made a choice to pull a gun and kill someone, no one did this to him .... At least now there is justice. He will pay for what he did.”

Moralez, 22, faces more than 50 years in state prison. A sentencing date has not been set. Riley is expected to pick a day after ruling on a remaining perjury count that was not submitted to the jury.

According to court testimony, Moralez shot Miramontez four times in the head with a small-caliber handgun after the victim gave the defendant and two other gang members a ride in his car. The motive for the killing was unclear.

The other gang members eventually implicated Moralez and were provided money to relocate by a state witness protection program. One of the teens told jurors that within days of the incident he told Maria Miramontez that Moralez was the shooter, yet he refused to testify at a preliminary hearing last fall because he feared retaliation by other gang members.

Prosecutors eventually persuaded the teenager, who faced contempt charges, to take the stand. They also used a jail informant to obtain a secretly tape-recorded statement in which the defendant admits to the shooting.

During the trial, Moralez denied shooting Miramontez and told the jury that the other witnesses were lying.

Attorney Willard Wiksell underscored the point in closing arguments, telling jurors that the prosecution case was built upon unreliable witnesses.

On Tuesday, Wiksell called the verdict a disappointment.

“We argued our case to the jury; obviously they saw it different,” he said.