by Taite Trautwein and Fabiha Zaman
Preliminary Hearing Reveals Defendant’s Past Encounters with Law Enforcement
By Taite Trautwein
Prior to the beginning of their retrial, defendants Jason Michael Lopez and Stephon Jerome Ramirez reported to Yolo County Superior Courthouse Wednesday morning to take part in a pretrial evidenciary hearing. The hearing saw a handful of potential witnesses take the stand to give brief testimony, with their admissibility to be judged at a later date.
The pair are once again being tried for their alleged involvement in an attempted shooting in May of 2016 that saw them charged with three counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm with multiple enhancements for criminal street gang activity. The original trial ended in a mistrial, resulting in a second attempt being scheduled for early this year.
The first witness called by Deputy District Attorney Kyle Hasapes was Sean Kenney, a police officer for the Vallejo Police Department. Kenney gave testimony in regard to Stephon Ramirez’s placement as a passenger in a vehicle that was tied, during a traffic stop in West Sacramento on February 17, 2015, to a shooting in Vallejo.
The vehicle, a 1995 Buick LeSabre, was spotted in West Sacramento after Officer Kenney entered it in a statewide database in an attempt to locate the car following a witness’ description.
Kenney claimed Ramirez was merely a passenger in the vehicle, and for the most part he was focused on the driver of the car, to whom the car was registered. Both Ramirez and the driver were allowed
to leave following a search of the car.
A second Vallejo police officer, Terry Shillinger, also testified. According to his testimony, Schillinger’s main contribution to the investigation was showing, to a witness of the shooting, photo line-ups containing both Ramirez and the driver .
During cross-examination from Deputy Public Defender Martha Sequeira, the representation for Ramirez, it was revealed that neither the driver of the car nor Ramirez were ever properly identified by the witness. Additionally, Shillinger stated that no arrest was ever made in relation to the shooting.
Next, an officer of the West Sacramento Police Department, David Asaro, gave his side of the story. Asaro assisted with the original vehicle stop while on patrol.
Asaro claimed that on the night of the traffic stop he had observed a tattoo of a “Budweiser B” on the hand of Ramirez, a symbol typically associated with the Broderick Boys, a sect of the Norteños street gang that operates within Yolo County.
However, Sequeira noted that Asaro, in his report, failed to make note of any such tattoos. Asaro attributed this to the fact that he was new to the job at the time and did not know it was important information.
Sequeira also brought to the officer’s attention the fact that he identified Ramirez as the driver of the vehicle on the night of the stop, a fact disputed by the reports and testimony of his colleagues, and she pointed out to Judge Janene Beronio that this fact should hurt the witness’ credibility.
Later, the witness incorrectly stated that he had answered questions asked of him by attorney James Granucci, the representative of Jason Lopez and co-counsel to Sequeira, at prior hearings. Asaro claimed that this mistake could have come due to the “badgering” he was receiving from Sequeira, stating it could have “caught him off guard” and caused him to answer incorrectly.
The last two witnesses of the morning were in relation to a different incident involving Ramirez and his stepbrother on March 17, 2015.
The first witness was a store team leader at a Raley’s in West Sacramento. He stated that on the day in question a young man entered the store in obvious distress, and later brandished a knife. The witness claimed he was able to take the knife from the man and lead him back to his office where he called police. He also claimed two men later came in the store, both wearing red, but left after a few minutes.
The second witness was the officer who responded to the scene, Rinaldo Monterrosa of the West Sacramento Police Department. Monterrosa claimed that upon reviewing surveillance footage he saw a shirtless man chase the victim into the Raley’s.
Monterrosa claimed he was able to identify the chaser as Stephon Ramirez and eventually arrested him.
After the arrest, Monterrosa claimed Ramirez said his “brother had stabbed him, and he had witnesses, but he wasn’t a snitch.” Monterrosa learned later that the man Ramirez was chasing was his stepbrother, who Ramirez claimed had stabbed him first after an argument involving tickets being purchased.
The pretrial hearing was expected to resume with more witnesses in the afternoon session. Deputy DA Hasapes claimed to have 22 witnesses prepared.
Testimony Heard Tuesday in Preliminary Hearing for Codefendants Charged with Stabbing
By Fabiha Zaman
On Tuesday afternoon, the preliminary hearing for codefendants Stephon Ramirez and Jason Lopez reconvened. Both men are charged with the alleged stabbing of two victims, vehicle theft, and driving a stolen vehicle, as well as multiple gang enhancements.
Deputy District Attorney Kyle Hasapes, representing the People, called Nvard Avagyan, the first witness of the afternoon. Avagyan works for the city of West Sacramento. On August 7, 2014, she was dispatched to an area near Walnut and Maple Streets in West Sacramento to respond to a possible sighting of a stolen vehicle.
While approaching Walnut Street, Avagyan testified that she saw a green Mercedes SUV that fit the description she was given. She witnessed a man, whom she later identified as Ramirez, leaning into the front seat of the car, and observed several other men standing outside the car.
Avagyan then conducted a felony car stop and asked the man she now believes to be Ramirez to put his hands up. She held him at gunpoint and asked him to identify himself but he responded with something inaudible and bailed from the scene on foot. Avagyan then took a stolen vehicle report and arrested the other men who were standing around the car. She also broadcast a description of the man who ran from the scene to other officers in the area, describing him as a Hispanic man with black hair styled in an afro, and wearing blue jeans.
During cross-examination from defense counsel, Deputy Public Defender Martha Sequeira, representing Ramirez, questioned the witness as to why she only mentioned a number “14” tattoo on Ramirez’s face in the last hearing for this case after she had seen his photo again. Avagyan mentioned multiple times that this was oversight on her part, but Sequeira continued to question how she was able to even properly identify the man as Ramirez if she was unable to independently recollect the tattoo on his face.
The witness also revealed that Ramirez was found later in someone’s backyard, where multiple officers including Avagyan herself were at the scene, and still no one said anything about the face tattoo. Sequeira also asked why none of the officers recorded a face tattoo once Ramirez was taken into custody at the police station, to which she had no answer.
After Avagyan was dismissed by Judge Janene Beronio, the People called in the next witness, John Dougherty, a police sergeant with the city of Sacramento. Dougherty was dispatched to Mangan Park, south of Fruitridge Rd. near Freeport Blvd., on February 18, 2004, where he was needed to respond to the alleged stabbing of two victims.
Dougherty recalled that one of the victims had six stab wounds. He later talked to the victim about identifying the alleged stabbers, and he broadcast this information to other police units in the area.
Deputy DA Hasapes asked the witness if he knew of anyone that was apprehended in relation to the stabbing, to which the witness answered yes, but he was unable to link any vehicle to the man arrested – Jason Lopez.
Upon further questioning, Dougherty revealed he was not the officer that arrested Lopez, but was on the scene during the arrest, which occurred at a different location than Mangan Park.
At this point, defense counsel, especially James Granucci representing Lopez, began to object to every question the prosecution asked the witness. Defense claimed that there were objections to relevance, hearsay, double hearsay and lack of foundation, among other objections.
The defense pointed out that this witness was not the one to arrest Lopez nor physically witness it, he just happened to reach the scene of the arrest and now the prosecution was asking him to testify in this case based on knowledge he did not have.
Judge Beronio sustained some and overruled some of the objections and asked Hasapes to rephrase questions that were objected to until the defense had a chance to cross-examine the witness.
The cross-examination was conducted by Mr. Granucci. Granucci asked a series of questions that referred to Dougherty’s independent recollection of the incident. He asked about details of the night and of reports, if photographs were taken, what type of clothing articles Lopez wore, physical characteristics of the scene and other people at the scene of the arrest – including the names of other officers there that night. Dougherty was unable to answer almost all the questions Granucci asked.
After Dougherty was excused, the People called current private investigator and former police officer of Sacramento, Grant Fillipi. During direct, he was unable to recall anything and had to refer to his report for every single question.
The defense counsel objected to this as improper refreshing of his recollection, as he seemed to be reading off his report when answering questions for the prosecution. Judge Beronio stopped to ask the witness if he remembered anything at all from the incident, to which he answered no. Fillipi was then excused, and the next witness, Jose Villanueva, was asked to take the stand.
Villanueva is a deputy sheriff with Sacramento County, and was formerly employed by the city of West Sacramento as a police officer for seven years, where he was assigned to gangs and investigations.
The deputy sheriff testified to an incident on August 2, 2003, when Lopez was arrested, having been found in violation of his parole. Villanueva informed the court that the Holy Cross Church in the Broderick area held events that Norteño and Sureño gangs would frequent. On August 2, 2003, the church was holding a festival, thus Villanueva, as part of a security team, went to the event.
During the cross-examination from Granucci, Villanueva revealed that Lopez was under CYA (California Youth Authority) parole and was witnessed at the festival associating with another known gang member, violating his parole parameters. Villanueva, however, was unable to reveal how he knew Lopez was on CYA parole, other than citing various phone conversations with an employee at the parole office.
Villanueva also searched Lopez and the other known gang member Lopez was associating with at the festival, but was unable to provide evidence that they were subject to searches – other than citing that he knew he was allowed to search them “to the best of his knowledge.”
Before Ms. Sequeira was able to finish her questioning of the witness, court adjourned for the day. Court was scheduled reconvene in this case at 9 A.M. the next day and to continue with the testimony of Villanueva.
