A parolee and suspected gang member gunned down a man in the courtyard of a Desert Hot Springs apartment building, a prosecutor alleged Tuesday, but a defense attorney said the real killer got away and that the case against his client was based solely on unreliable and inconsistent witness accounts.
Jury deliberations began after final arguments were made in the trial of Edwardo Stultz, 25, of Cathedral City, who is accused in the Dec. 13, 2016, slaying of 37-year-old Coachella resident Johnny Rodrigues, who was pronounced dead at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs.
Prosecutors say Rodrigues was arguing with Stultz and another man shortly before he was shot multiple times just before 3 a.m. He “was unable to say who shot him and quickly went into cardiac arrest on scene,” court documents state, but witnesses placed Stultz and another shooter, who remains at large, at the apartment complex.
A video surveillance system at the apartment was not working on the day of the shooting, and the murder weapon, believed to be a .357 revolver, was never recovered. A ballistics expert testified it was unclear whether bullets recovered from the victim’s body came from one or multiple guns.
Stultz’s attorney, Bosky Kathuria, said prosecutors were seeking a conviction based on the unreliable eyewitness testimony of drug addicts, who were coerced by law enforcement to identify his client.
Kathuria alleged the prosecution’s case is “built a house of cards of drug-addled, coerced, hearsay statements” rather than hard physical evidence.
Deputy District Attorney Anthony Orlando told jurors that when Stultz was taken into custody the night of the shooting, he told police that they could not believe the word of “tweakers” who identified him, despite not being told why he was brought in for questioning.
Stultz also told investigators that he was at his sister’s home all day until that evening, but Orlando said witnesses spotted him elsewhere in the city around 7 that morning. Stultz told police that no one could corroborate his presence at the home because he was apparently alone until he left his sister’s residence sometime around 4 p.m.
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