2002 Murder Case Goes To Jury

From The Daily Democrat:
2002 Murder Case Goes to Jury

By MONICA KRAUTH
Democrat staff writer

Jury deliberations are now under way following a nine-month trial of a 2002 gang-related homicide.

The prosecution and the defense in the so-called “Halloween Homicide “case both gave their closing statements Tuesday in the death penalty phase for defendants Miguel Cervantes and Ernesto Arellano.

A third man, James Olague, who is believed to have been the lookout in the Oct. 31, 2002, murder faces life in prison. He is seeking a new trial on the grounds of insufficient evidence. A hearing on that motion is scheduled for July 28.

The jury convicted Olague of first-degree murder in the killings of Woodlanders Eric Eugene Folsom, 17, and Robert Michael Stepper, 20. Olague as well as Cervantes and Arellano were also convicted of attempted murder in the shooting that night of two 14-year-old girls. Both girls survived.

Arellano was convicted of ordering the murder of Stepper, while Cervantes was convicted of being the shooter.

Though they were convicted for the murders and attempted murder, the penalty phase gave the defense an opportunity to provide reasons why their clients should not get the death
penalty but life in prison without parole.

Judge Arvid Johnson told the 12-member jury that each of them must be persuaded that the murders warrant death or life without parole. In fact, if one juror does not feel the death penalty is warranted for Cervantes, then he should get life. The same would apply to Arellano.
Yolo County deputy district attorneys Jeff Reisig and Jim Walker have been working toward persuading the jury that “factors of aggravation” outweigh “factors of mitigation” and therefore the death penalty should be the form of punishment.

However, Judge Johnson told jurors the totality of the case should be considered. Moreover, the jury is free to use their personal morals to help them decide. They were also instructed not consider any past crimes by the suspects.

“Each of you must be persuaded that (the charges against Arellano and Cervantes in this case) warrants death without parole,” he said.
Johnson told the jury to not consider the feelings of the family unless it illuminates positive characteristics of the defendant.

Reisig provided arguments for factors of aggravation in the case of Arellano. “Without him, none of this would have happened,” he said.
“Arellano wanted to show something to the little town of Woodland. (And it was) one of the most horrific crimes committed in this city carried out through a criminal street gang,” Reisig said. This man, Reisig said, is a gang leader.

Everyone was influenced by Arellano, Reisig said. “He was a charismatic leader who quietly ordered and planned it. He wasn’t even there. He had those folks working for him,” he said.

Reisig said Arellano’s “motivation was power and respect. He wanted to control Oak Avenue (where the crime was committed).”
However, in Arellano’s defense, attorney Tom Purtell said, “The facts are clear.” Arellano abused his wife Elvira Arellano. When he was on methamphetamines, he wasn’t a father.

“Yet, when he’s not on drugs, he loves them and they do too. He writes to them. He is the best example of why they should stay away from drugs,” Purtell said.

“There needs to be a greater degree of certainty than guilt for the death penalty,” Purtell said. If there is “lingering doubt” — the space between reasonable doubt and possible doubt — about a particular accusation then, Purtell argued, that the jury “consider this as a mitigating factor as what you deem appropriate.”

Not every murder, Walker said, “qualifies for the death penalty.”
Walker said that Mark Corey, the defense psychologist at the California Medical Facility who testified earlier in the trial, called the murders a “psychopathic slaughter with motivation” with the personal use of a firearm, and a high level of violence. These are factors of aggravation, Walker said. Moreover, Walker called Folsom and the girls “children” since they were under the age of 18 at the time of the killings and therefore Cervantes should be given the death penalty.

Rodney Beaty, a defense attorney for Cervantes, said he honors the questionnaire the jury fills out when asked about what type of person should get the death penalty.

Some of the responses, according to Beaty were, 9/11, Poly Klaas or the “worst of the worst,” but Cervantes does not belong in this category, Beaty argued.

Hayes Gable, a defense attorney for Arellano, said the jury has responsibility.

“Of (the prosecutions’) reasons (for the death penalty) I did not hear,” Gable said, “was that killing the defendants would restore the lives of Stepper and Folsom ... I submit to you that you do not have to kill to make sure that justice is put in place.”

Gable said that not everyone convicted of murder should receive the death penalty. The law doesn’t favor the death penalty. Before you consider, you must be persuaded that circumstances warrant the death penalty, he said.

“Even then, the law doesn’t make you vote for the death penalty,” Gable continued.

In addition, Gable said the jury should look at Arellano’s entire life. “You also have a responsibility to look beyond the crimes,” he said.
In regard to Cervantes, Beaty had the jury recall a testimony from a prison guard at the Monroe Detention Center who called Cervantes one of the “most manageable” inmates there.

Beaty questioned that reason for voting for the death penalty. “I urge you to discuss “lingering doubt.” The only issue, Beaty said, “is whether he is going here (showed a picture of prison and a picture of the barbed wire or whether he is going (to die).

“Don’t let them tell you he’s going on a picnic,” Beaty said.

“The fact he can watch TV, see blue sky, seems to be a reason proper to put him on death row,” Beaty said.

In addition, if Cervantes acts out of order, Beaty said those privileges could be taken away. Beaty said by giving him the death penalty nothing gets accomplished, but that it only creates more suffering.

Beaty said that even the witnesses brought forth by the prosecution characterized Cervantes with the statement: Violence isn’t really his style.

In the three years of coming to court, Beaty said, Cervantes has “never hurt a soul.”

But as the prosecution said that there is a possibility that he could commit further atrocities, Beaty said “possibility — it’s just that.”

“Doesn’t his history, his years in jail, mean anything?” Beaty asked.
On Tuesday, June 13, Cervantes took the stand in an attempt to convince the jury he does not deserve the death penalty.

"This conviction has been surreal to me, to say the least," Cervantes said at that time. "I can't believe the number of lives that have been altered because of it."

He went on to describe what life would be like for his family and son without him there to be a father.

In total, seven people were arrested in connection with the Halloween murders that are believed to have been spawned by drug debts and rivalry between the Norteno and Sureno gangs. Christina Marten, who prosecutors say may have lured Stepper to Oak Avenue that night, was tried separately last year and convicted for her role in the killings.
She is serving a sentence of life-without-parole.

Three other defendants, Nathanial Easlon, Gilberto Lopez and Richard Betancourt, testified for the prosecution in exchange for lesser sentences.

— Reach Monica Krauth at 530-406-6231 or at mkrauth [at] dailydemocrat.com