
A jury Thursday deadlocked 10-2 in favor of acquitting a man accused in a Santa Ana murder that occurred nine years ago, forcing a judge to declare a mistrial.
It was the second trial for 26-year-old Eric Vasquez Ortiz. He was convicted on Jan. 28, 2014, of first-degree murder and attempted murder, with sentencing enhancements for gang activity and the vicarious discharge of a weapon, but a judge last November granted him a new trial based on allegations of jail informant misconduct.
Ortiz’s attorney, Rudy Loewenstein, sought a new trial for his client after allegations of widespread outrageous governmental misconduct were lodged in the case of Scott Dekraai, the worst mass killer in the county’s history.
Ortiz had been convicted in his first trial in part based on the testimony of an informant who claimed Ortiz confessed to the crimes, but the informant was not a witness in the retrial.
Jurors deliberated for two days before they declared they were hopelessly deadlocked.
Loewenstein said he does not believe his client ever confessed to informant Donald Geary. Excluding Geary from the retrial made a big difference, the attorney said.
The defense attorney argued that witness descriptions of the killers did not match Ortiz, who he said had an alibi.
“… But even without the alibi there was plenty of evidence to establish reasonable doubt based on the descriptions of eyewitnesses,” Loewenstein said.
Co-defendant Sergio Cabezas, who testified against Ortiz, was given a plea deal in 2012 that dropped the murder and attempted murder charges in favor of a voluntary manslaughter conviction.
Loewenstein said he believed jurors saw Cabezas’ testimony as “self- serving.”
“I tried this case a whodunnit and, really, it wasn’t Eric,” Loewenstein said.
Both sides return to court April 19 for a hearing on how to proceed with the case. Loewenstein said he would push to have the charges dismissed.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard King granted new trial motion, after ruling in November that Ortiz couldn’t get a fair hearing on his allegations of misconduct because four sheriff’s deputies invoked their Fifth Amendment right against incrimination during an evidentiary hearing.
Loewenstein argued the government committed a so-called Massiah violation, meaning inmate Donald Geary was working as an informant for authorities when he illegally got Ortiz, who was represented by an attorney, to make statements implicating himself in the Oct. 23, 2006, shooting.
King concluded “there was no way for us to know” if Geary was working for the government “before the (first trial) and it most probably made a difference to the jury and the result,” Loewenstein said.
Former Orange County Deputy District Attorney Erik Petersen prosecuted Ortiz in the 2014 trial. Many of his cases came under scrutiny amid allegations of widespread, institutionalized government misconduct in the use of jailhouse informants.
Ortiz was accused of driving into a rival gang territory and participating in the fatal shooting of 51-year-old Emeterio Adame, who was talking to another man who his assailants figured was a rival gang member. The other man, who was in a wheelchair, was also injured in the shooting.
Loewenstein said Adame’s son was murdered only a few weeks before the shooting.
–City News Service
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