SANTA CRUZ—Nearly five years after Michael Escobar allegedly gunned down a rival gang member and killed a young girl in the crossfire, his case is finally being presented to a jury.
Jurors heard opening arguments Tuesday in the case that is likely to take at least two weeks.
While the courtroom was full of family members and observers, Escobar chose not to attend, a move Santa Cruz County Assistant District Attorney Johanna Schonfield said was unusual but not unheard of.
Escobar, now 36, is accused of shooting Ramon Rendon several times in front of the Valley Inn on the 900 block of Main Street on Oct. 10, 2014. One of the bullets entered the nearby Fish House restaurant and struck 4-year-old Jaelyn Zavala, who later died.
Schonfield said the shooting was a gang-motivated attack and a “preplanned, coordinated execution.” She is asking the jury to convict Escobar on first-degree murder charges, which would carry a sentence of life in prison.
Defense attorney Jay Rorty said that Escobar was drunk when the shooting occurred, which he said calls into question Escobar’s intent during the shooting. Rorty also disputed the ballistic evidence, saying that several people walked through the crime scene after the attack. He is also questioning whether Escobar is a gang member, or merely an associate. He pointed to Escobar’s lack of tattoos.
Rendon, 33, was reportedly a member of the Sureño gang. He was living in a room at the Valley Inn with his girlfriend and dealing drugs and reportedly was the intended target.
Jaelyn, whose mother worked at the restaurant, often stayed there when childcare was unavailable.
Schonfield told jurors that the shooting was motivated by a longstanding gang rivalry fueled by turf disputes and control over the illegal drug market.
“In 2014 there was a war going on in the streets of our community,” she said. “A war between two criminal street gangs that were intent on eliminating each other.
“This is an organization so intent on eliminating rivals that the killing of children is considered acceptable collateral damage,” Schonfield said.
She showed jurors several pieces of video evidence depicting the attack from several different angles.
Rorty said that Escobar was so intoxicated that he defecated on himself, fell face-first into a blackberry bramble in his haste to escape and took 11 hours to sober up.
Rorty asked the jury to consider a conviction of involuntary manslaughter, instead of the premeditated murder charges.
Rorty also called into question who fired the fatal shots. Escobar’s associate Marcos Robles, who was also present during the attack, was using a 9 mm pistol similar to Escobar’s.
In addition, Rorty disputed Schonfield’s assertions that the videos showed the men plotting the attack inside the Fish House, since none of it has audio.
Escobar, who reportedly is part of the Norteño gang, was at the Fish House with several of his fellow gang members on the night of the attack, where they socialized for several hours as more members arrived, Schonfield said.
Then, at 11:15 p.m., “everything changes,” she said.
Escobar left the restaurant with a fellow gang member, and saw that Rendon was hanging out outside his hotel room with two of his associates.
Escobar then left with another man, and came back about 30 minutes later with guns and body armor, parking their vehicle nearby to make getaway easier, Schonfield said.
Then, with their faces covered, Escobar and Robles confronted Rendon and his two associates, firing several shots.
In all, Rendon was hit by 12 bullets, all but one of them in his back. Shell casings found at the scene matched a gun later discarded by Escobar.
The bullet that struck Jaelyn was too damaged to be tested. But Schonfield said trajectory tests left no doubt that Escobar’s gun killed her.
As the shots rang out, a bartender picked up the little girl to comfort her. That is when a bullet went through her body and injured him.
He looked down to see her unconscious and covered in blood.
“And it was absolute chaos,” Schonfield said.
All the suspects fled, and Escobar was arrested after fighting with a police sergeant and getting tangled in a stand of blackberry bushes.
After his arrest, Escobar refused to be photographed, and also refused to allow a test of his palm for gunshot residue, Schonfield said.
He also showed no signs of intoxication, an observation made by several officers, she said.
Escobar was an aspiring rapper, and created several videos in which he appeared to be discussing murder and violence. Schonfield played several in court, two of which showed him with a handgun. In another he rapped about using an AK-47 rifle to kill rival Sureño gang members.
The other men involved in the attack Gilberto Ponciano, Roberto Ramirez and Juan Cruz, were sentenced in February 2018 to eight years in prison after being convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and voluntary manslaughter.
Robles was arrested in 2015 in Guadalajara, Mexico. He faces trial in December.
Escobar’s trial continues Wednesday at 9 a.m.
