By Jagjit Bath
On the morning of March 2, 2017, the testimony continued in the trial of the People v. Lance Richard Ornellas-Castro, with Judge David W. Reed presiding. The defendant is accused of the murder of Andrew Phaouthoum in December of 2015, and codefendant Jorge Garcia accepted a plea agreement. Deputy District Attorney Melinda Aiello started off the morning with their witness Justin Mo, a gang expert. Ms. Aiello asked Mr. Mo to define some terms to aid in clarification of testimony for the jury.
Ms. Aiello asked Mr. Mo to describe how one can become identified as gang member. In response, Mr. Mo said that an individual’s status could be presented in many different ways, such as by tattoos of the number 14 or XIV, clothing colors like red, and hand signs. Mr. Mo was also asked by the prosecutor to describe what “active” and “dropout” means in slang language. Doing his best based upon his training, Mr. Mo described that “active” means when an individual is still having connections with his gang – for instance, whether he will be available whenever they want him to work for them on call, and whether he can roam around freely without fear of being targeted. “Drop-out” means when an individual “snitches” on his gang to the police or turns his back on the gang, and usually that individual is targeted by the gang afterwards.
Ms. Aiello also presented People’s Exhibit 94 to Mr. Mo and asked him to describe what he saw in the picture and what it means, based on the training he received. Mr. Mo described the picture of Mr. Ornellas-Castro with a shaved head and throwing a gang sign with the hashtag “Stockton.” Next, Ms. Aiello asked Mr. Mo to describe what it means to “…hit a lick…” referring to People’s Exhibit 74 (a text message conversation between Mr. Ornellas-Castro and Mr. Garcia). Mr. Mo described that it means they’re prepared for a robbery.
Next, Deputy Public Defender Daniel Hutchinson, representing the defendant, asked Mr. Mo a question in cross-examination by giving him an illustration of a similar situation. Dep. Hutchinson started by asking what an individual is called when he is not related to the gang members – he does not do anything they ask, he just meets them occasionally at parties, get togethers, and only goes around the area to pick up his kids, etc. Mr. Mo didn’t specifically answer Mr. Hutchinson’s question, except to describe the active, inactive and dropout terms based on his training.
On re-direct, Ms. Aiello asked more questions regarding gangster rap and more gang-related terms. Mr. Mo was also asked if he uses the Urban Dictionary to find out the meaning of the words. Mr. Mo responded by saying yes, at some points he has to do research to get the meaning of the slang words. He also stated that he watches gangster rap videos to learn the hand signs and common tattoos.
Before morning recess, Mr. Hutchinson made a motion to the judge asserting that a robbery didn’t take place in this case, whereas Ms. Aiello insisted that Mr. Ornellas-Castro fired a gunshot at Andrew Phaouthoum on December 11, 2015, in the process of a marijuana sale that had become a robbery. The judge denied Motion 18 before adjourning the courtroom for the recess.
After the break, Mr. Hutchinson presented Sacramento PD Officer John Pullen as the defense’s next witness. Officer Pullen testified as to what he and his team saw and did when they went to Andrew Phaouthoum’s house. Pullen stated that he saw rope lines hanging in the garage, with weed hanging on them to dry. Then with his team he searched the house to look for more marijuana possession. He also mentioned that they had to forcefully open the door of one of the bedrooms because it was locked, and inside they found a lot of marijuana with slips with names on them. Officer Pullen and his team also found some marijuana packed near the fridge. Mr. Hutchinson asked Officer Pullen to describe the marijuana’s packaging and how many packages they found in the house. Pullen answered the defense’s question by saying that they found about four bags of marijuana in the room and about three on top of the fridge, and “one had 26.7 grams, [a 2nd had]18.0 grams and a 3rd one had 130 grams in the bags. On October 8, 2015, Pullen’s team arrested Andrew Phaouthoum. Hutchinson asked “What did you arrest him for?” Pullen answered, “For possession of marijuana for sale.”
Deputy District Attorney Matthew De Moura, representing the People, asked Officer Pullen, “On October 2nd, you didn’t go looking for Andrew?” Pullen responded, “No.”
Next, Mr. Hutchinson presented the defense’ witness, “MS.” MS is 19 years old and knows Jorge Garcia, the codefendant who pled out, via her friend “FC.” MS testified that she did not know of any troubles Mr. Garcia had, except that he kept saying “people are looking for him…” when she hung out with him and her friend FC. She said she didn’t bother to ask FC for details because FC likes to keep things to herself. MS also mentioned that Garcia handed FC some marijuana before he left the car, one time when she and FC dropped Garcia off somewhere. Ever since, MS told the court that she hadn’t seen or talked to FC. But she did tell the police that, when she met Garcia, he kept saying that people are looking for him, but she didn’t know if it was for something good or bad.
Before the lunch break, Mr. Hutchinson presented their next witness, “BA.” BA is Mr. Ornellas-Castro’s sister. During her testimony, BA revealed that she grew up with the defendant at their mom’s in Fairfield. At the age of 16, Ornellas-Castro moved to Stockton with their Aunt “G.” She also said that Ornellas-Castro was outgoing, a jokester, and had good sense of humor throughout his childhood until he returned from military duty in Afghanistan.
Mr. Hutchinson asked, “Did you notice anything after his return from Afghanistan?”
BA answered, “Yes, Lance was more serious, wasn’t talkative, became more argumentative after drinking alcohol. He would keep drinking and start picking up arguments with family members and friends.”
Mr. Hutchinson also asked, “Did he tell you about Joseph’s death?”
“Yes, shortly after his return. He said he is guilty,” BA responded.
“What did he say he feels guilty about?” Mr. Hutchinson asked.
“That it should have been him that died, not his friend… while crying but he never usually cries,” BA responded. “I suggested that he talk to a counselor but he always said that he was okay, he doesn’t need help from a counselor.”
Before the Deputy DA could ask BA questions in cross-examination, Judge David Reed released the jury for their lunch break, and told them to return by 1:30PM to the outside of Department 8.
