Jury to weigh victim’s threat

July 17th, 2011 Indiana Lalor Leave a comment Go to comments

Two angry men with guns and criminal records, one of them drunk, added up to an explosive mix that blew up into a killing two years ago in Oak Park.

Now the Sacramento Superior Court trial is coming down to the wire, and a jury must decide whether the shooting death of Christopher Richard Montejano by Richard Lalo Ramirez was a matter of self-defense or murder.

Loaded on tequila, Ramirez, 31, shot Montejano six times. Five blasts came after Ramirez had already dropped the 20-year-old victim with a bullet to the chest.

Deputy District Attorney Leland Washington, in his closing argument Thursday in front of Judge Gary S. Mullen, said the evidence clearly demonstrated premeditation.

By all accounts, Montejano wanted to settle a score with Ramirez he accused the defendant of disrespecting his estranged girlfriend, the mother of his daughter. He found Ramirez on the evening of May 24, 2009, at a party on 18th Avenue in Oak Park.

Ramirez, in turn, got a gun and lured Montejano behind a van parked down the block, Washington said, to conceal what was about to happen.

“When (Ramirez) walks him to the end of the van, Christopher Montejano doesn’t know it, but his life is over,” Washington told the jury. “Each step, as he walks down the street, past three houses, he has the gun in his pocket, tequila in his veins, anger in his heart.”

The defense conceded on the gun and the booze. But Ramirez’s lawyer said it was Montejano’s anger that resulted in the fatal shooting. Twice, attorney Tim Warriner said, Montejano came looking for Ramirez. When Montejano returned a third time, Warriner said, he carried a gun stuffed into his Spiderman backpack.

“That’s who we are dealing with when we talk about Chris Montejano,” Warriner said to the jury. Told by a woman that Ramirez’s son was at the party, Montejano replied, “I’ll shoot the kid” and “I’ll shoot you, too,” Warriner said, quoting witnesses.

Warriner said Montejano planned to “quick draw” Ramirez, reaching with his left hand for the gun while throwing a punch at Ramirez with his other hand.

Washington said it was “ridiculous” to suggest Montejano planned to use the gun at all. If he wanted to shoot anybody, he would have put the gun in his pocket, the prosecutor said. If he reached backward, it was because Ramirez had his weapon out and was prepared to fire it, according to Washington.

Felled by a shot to the chest, Montejano rolled in the street, screaming in pain. Ramirez then shot him five more times, in the ankle, thigh, groin and back, according to the prosecutor.

Montejano’s mother, Christina Virgen, wept as Washington described the shooting. Her son died four days later at the UC Davis Medical Center.

Outside court, Virgen said her son “made mistakes” in “his thug life.” According to court records, Montejano was on probation at the time of his death for battering the same woman he had accused Ramirez of disrespecting.

But Virgen said her son had enrolled at Sacramento City College for the fall 2010 term and had moved into midtown, away from the trouble of Oak Park. He had a daughter, Annaleah, now 3. He was getting his gang tattoos removed.

“He was turning his life around,” Virgen said.

On the other side of the courtroom, Ramirez’s wife, Eloisa, and his brother and uncles have filled a couple rows to observe the trial. Eloisa Ramirez said there is more to her husband than a criminal record that shows three trips to prison for a shooting conspiracy, being an ex-felon with a gun and assault with a deadly weapon.

“He’s a family guy,” Eloisa Ramirez said, of the man who has had one son with her as well as two other children.

Wearing a white eye patch and canary yellow shirt, Ramirez bantered lightly with the court personnel before court Thursday. He sat at attention while the two lawyers dissected his case.

“The reason Christopher Montejano is gone, the reason he’s not here, the reason his daughter will not know him as a father, is because this person here murdered him,” Washington told the jury, pointing at Ramirez. “He didn’t shoot because he had to. Richard Ramirez shot him murdered him because he chose to.”

Warriner described it differently, saying Montejano went “all in” to confront Ramirez and came out of it the loser.

“Was he reaching for a breath mint?” when he twisted his arm toward the backpack, Warriner said of Montejano. “The reasonable interpretation was that he was reaching for a gun.” Of his own client, Warriner said, “You have a right to do what you have to do so you don’t wind up dead.”

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