By Madison Whittemore
WOODLAND, CA – The third week of Justin Gonzalez’s retrial in Yolo County Superior Court resumed Monday, featuring additional testimony from investigating Officer Sergio Pimentel, the readback of a previous witness’s testimony and the new testimony of an investigator from the Yolo County Public Defender’s office.
Deputy District Attorney Robin Johnson resumed her redirect of Officer Pimentel by questioning him about some timestamps in the video surveillance footage, initially honing in on the location of Melinda Collins in the video footage compared to the testimony Collins gave last week.
Referring to the video footage, Officer Pimentel explained Collins is seen on Los Portales Lane and shortly after interacts with Ruby Aradoz who was just attacked and cut by a man on a bike. Aradoz can be seen in the footage pointing north on Fiesta Way.
Collins, following Aradoz’s pointing, is seen heading in the northbound direction and soon disappears into the surveillance camera’s blind spot. Pimentel continued, noting there was about a minute where both Collins and Justin Gonzalez were lost off camera.
DDA Johnson questioned Officer Pimentel about the location Raquel Ponce testified she was at when witnessing the stabbing—on the corner of Los Portoles and Fiesta Way by a light pole.
According to the exhibit DDA Johnson provided for the court, on the corner Ponce testified to, there are cars that park in diagonal spots in front of trailer #113. However, Pimentel testified he was able to see over the cars, suggesting Ponce had a direct line of sight to the spot of the stabbing from this corner.
Officer Pimentel was also questioned about an interview he had with Collins Sept. 30, 2016, where Collins elaborated on how Aradoz was in possession of the pocket knife that killed Antonio.
According to officer Pimentel, Collins explained she gave Aradoz the knife after Aradoz had been stabbed and shortly after, Collins left and “went North on Fiesta Way to look for the possible person” who had attacked Aradoz.
During the interview, Collins concluded by noting that she eventually got back into the white van and told Aradoz they needed “to get the heck out of there,” later explaining that “when we are gang affiliated, we had to get the hell out.”
During recross, Deputy Public Defender Ron Johnson questioned Officer Pimentel about whether or not the interview with Collins was recorded, to which Pimentel responded “yes,” but noted the recording was not found in evidence and DDA Johnson did not have the video either.
DPD Johnson also questioned Pimentel about a section of the video footage which depicted Collins going east on Los Portales and disappearing out of sight and also depicted the approximate minute where Gonzalez and co-accused, Alexis Velazquez, were not in frame of the footage.
“I gather that at one point Melinda Collins, Velazquez, and Gonzalez were no longer in the video and were on Casa Grande Boulevard where when I did the walkthrough. When I put it together, that potentially could have been the time where Ponce Perez came out of her trailer, went north on Casa Grande, came across Collins and heard her say whatever she heard her say and pointed in the direction of Fiesta Way,” Pimentel explained.
Following this statement, DPD Johnson noted there’s no video evidence of anyone being on the corner of Fiesta Way when Collins is seen pointing on the video footage, to which Pimentel conceded, “It’s hard to say exactly where she exactly may have encountered Gonzalez and Velazquez.”
DDA Johnson continued hammering Officer Pimentel about his follow up investigation from Aug. 30 and introduced a report from Sept. 14, 2016, that summarizes a walk-through Pimentel did with Ponce through the Casa Del Sol trailer park.
While conducting the walkthrough, DPD Johnson observed Ponce had initially claimed Gonzalez and Velazquez proceeded together, side by side, running westbound on Los Portales.
However, video footage revealed this assertion to be inaccurate, as it showed that both Gonzalez and Velazquez actually returned from East Cross Street, with Velazquez leading the way and Gonzalez following approximately 15-20 seconds later.
DPD Johnson also discussed the photo lineup presented to Ponce when she couldn’t identify Gonzalez out of the lineup and explained the photo of Gonzalez presented showed him with facial hair—despite Gonzalez being clean shaven on the night of Antonio’s stabbing.
“Why would you have done a photo lineup with a picture of the individual that you’re interested in that didn’t look like him that night?” DPD Johnson asked Officer Pimentel who conceded that he did not know what Gonzalez looked like at the time.
DPD Johnson also asked Pimentel about visibility from the light pole where Ponce allegedly stood at the time of the stabbing, noting Pimentel stands at 5’11” tall and Ponce was “significantly shorter” and “may not be able to see things over cars like you are able to see,” to which Officer Pimentel nodded in agreement.
Concluding recross, Pimentel was asked by DPD Johnson about the multiple 911 calls Ponce allegedly made.
Officer Pimentel admitted to finding no phone records of Ponce dialing 911 and when questioned about Ponce’s testimony about moving Antonio’s body from the bench outside of trailer #114, officer Pimentel admitted that there was no blood found on the bench.
After highlighting enormous gaps in both Aradoz’s and Ponce’s testimonies during the retrial, Judge Samuel McAdam granted a request from DPD Johnson outside the presence of the jury.
“The defense is offering prior testimony for purposes of impeaching her trial testimony that we heard,” Judge McAdam asserted, referring to the testimony of Ruby Aradoz.
Jailene Gutierrez, a court appointed reader, read prior testimony from Aradoz in response to DDA Johnson’s questioning in the presence of the jury.
“I just remember them jumping around a guy,” Aradoz explained, referencing her difficulty remembering because of the alcohol induced blackouts that made the events a “blur.”
Gutierrez concluded the statements from Aradoz, “I don’t remember seeing them actually like hurt him [Antonio]…I didn’t see Justin I just remember him being there.”
The last witness called to the stand for the day was a witness from the defense—Sandra Gordon, who is an investigator with the Yolo County Public Defender’s office.
Gordon explained she interviewed Alan Macias who was in the car with Aradoz, Collins, and Amanda Huffman when they arrived at the Casa Del Sol trailer park on Aug. 30.
It was also noted that Macias knew who Gonzalez was since the two were in a car crash together when Mecias was 16 years old.
“He was very reserved and he didn’t want to be there and he did not want to give a statement,” Gordon explained, speaking about Macias’s clear discomfort about talking about the Aug. 30 stabbing.
Mecias said that he sat in the car when the group arrived at Casa Del Sol but he heard commotion outside of the car and saw a group of males and females have a verbal altercation.
“There was a commotion going on with a male and female but Justin was not involved in it,” Macias told Gordon during the interview, also noting that he watched Antonio get stabbed but at the time of the stabbing “Justin was just chilling with his friends and did not have a weapon.”
“Justin wasn’t involved…Justin didn’t do it” Macias repeatedly asserted during the interview, according to Gordon.
However, Gordon noted that when she questioned Macias about Aradoz’s involvement in the stabbing of Antonio, he claimed she was “asking too many questions” and Gordon said it was suddenly like “pulling teeth” to get any more information out of Macias.
