Trial in Fatal Beating Ends in Hung Jury

With the jury hopelessly deadlocked, a Ventura County judge declared a mistrial Friday in the trial of a former gang member accused of participating in the September 1999 beating death of an 18-year-old man attacked outside his Ventura apartment.

Jurors deliberated for three days before indicating they could not agree whether 22-year-old Ramiro Salgado was guilty of second-degree murder for allegedly kicking and striking William Zara.

“They sent out a note basically saying they were unable to reach a decision,” said defense attorney Richard Loftus, who said jurors reached an impasse Thursday but gave themselves the night to sleep on it. “Nothing changed.”

Superior Court Judge Vincent J. O’Neill Jr. called the panel into his courtroom late Friday morning and asked whether further deliberations would be useful.

Jurors indicated that they would not be and O’Neill declared a mistrial.

The panel had been hung 9 to 3, with the majority voting for acquittal, lawyers said. The split had been the same for more than a day, with the key issue being Salgado’s admission to police that he participated in the attack.

Gang members mistakenly thought Zara, a popular stagehand at the Ventura Theater, had reported their noisy party to police. He was stabbed and hit with a shovel and a baseball bat as he tried to crawl away.

According to court testimony, Salgado told detectives that he kicked Zara twice in the back, stating: “I stomped him. I’ll take the blame for that.”

Loftus argued that detectives misled his client. Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Maeve Fox argued that Salgado’s comments proved he was guilty of aiding and abetting in the killing.

In the end, jurors were uncomfortable with the statement and questioned whether the defendant actually participated in the attack or simply told detectives what he thought they wanted to hear, both lawyers said.

“We talked to them and they just thought the statement was too ambiguous,” Fox said. “They weren’t able to confirm that he gave enough detail.”

The lawyers said the jury disregarded the testimony of one of the prosecution’s key witnesses, a 25-year-old former gang member who implicated Salgado after being charged with murder himself.

Prosecutors must now decide whether to retry the case. A hearing is set for May 21.

“There could be some kind of negotiated settlement, or we could sit down and try it all over again,” said Loftus, whose client remains jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Salgado is the fifth and final defendant to stand trial in the killing. Police arrested several suspects after the Sept. 25, 1999, attack. Four were convicted of murder last year and are serving life sentences.