Retaliation Murder Case in Jury’s Hands : Gangs: The defendant is accused of shooting a rival in the head at a pay phone. Prosecutors say the act was part of a feud that has lasted generations.

A Superior Court jury on Thursday began deliberating the fate of Martin Rene Rodriguez, who is accused of killing a 17-year-old gang member last April as he stood talking at a pay phone.

If convicted on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, Rodriguez, 22, could face a maximum penalty of 27 years to life in state prison. The case went to the jury after a monthlong trial before Judge Phillip Cox in West Orange County Superior Court.

Authorities said the April 30 shooting of Rosendo Ibarra capped a longstanding feud between two gangs from the neighborhoods of Big Stanton in Stanton and La Colonia Independencia in the Garden Grove area, where youths have been at odds for three generations.

According to police, Rodriguez and four others from Big Stanton drove into the La Colonia neighborhood to shoot any rival gang member in retaliation for another shooting earlier that month.

Police said Ibarra, who was shot twice in the head, was a member of the Colonia gang and, on that fateful night, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Ibarra’s relatives, however, have denied Ibarra’s involvement in gang activities.

“We don’t think he was the intended victim when (they were) planning the shooting because they had talked about going into La Colonia to throw a hit,” Garden Grove Detective Mike Handfield said.

“They saw Rosendo Ibarra walking across the street toward the telephone, and at that point they intended to kill him because he had separated himself from a group of gang members in that neighborhood,” Handfield said.

According to police, Rodriguez bragged of the killing to a fellow gang member, Alfredo Ramirez, 17, who later told police about the admission in two taped interviews. Those interviews were admitted as evidence in court.

During the trial, however, Ramirez, a prosecution witness, testified that he had only heard “rumors” of Rodriguez’s involvement and he admitted lying to police about Rodriguez’s role in the slaying.

“That’s normal and natural for gang members,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Tom Avdeef, arguing that Ramirez’s interviews are accurate, not his testimony. “Gang members don’t rap on one another, and once it became public he (Ramirez) was in jeopardy because he lived in the neighborhood.”

In his closing arguments Wednesday, Rodriguez’s attorney, Robert Chatterton( said Ramirez, an admitted heroin user, could not differentiate between the truth and a lie.

“He had heard rumors . . . and probably didn’t think what he was going to tell the police was untruth,” Chatterton told the jury. “If you end up convicting (Rodriguez), it’s going to be because of a one-sided story by a heroin addict.”

Rodriguez is the second person to go to trial in the Ibarra murder. In November, Mario Pena, 16, who accompanied Rodriguez to the phone booth, was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. He was sentenced to 10 years in the California Youth Authority.

A third person, Joseph David Kehler, 23,, who is accused of driving the getaway car and supplying the murder weapon, is scheduled to go to trial next Tuesday. Kehler is charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.