SANTA CRUZ — Closing arguments in a 4-year-old homicide case started Tuesday after three weeks of trial testimony.
The Santa Cruz District Legal professional’s Workplace it’s in search of to show a first-degree homicide cost in opposition to Miguel Castaneda, a Santa Cruz man arrested April 20, 2018 on Riverside Drive in Watsonville for allegedly capturing to demise his former buddy and neighbor, Victor Vasquez Lopez, 36. Castaneda is also accused of committing assault with a firearm when he allegedly pointed his revolver threateningly at Lopez’s automotive passenger afterward.
“After all he hates Victor,” mentioned Protection lawyer Rory Bartle throughout his closing. “If any individual slept together with your spouse, sired a toddler after which tried to take that child again three or 4 years later … you’d most likely hate them, too.”
Bartle steered his consumer might have been appearing in self protection and warned jurors to look at for “straw man” arguments arrange and knocked down by the prosecution with a purpose to distract from extra necessary points.
Prosecutor Johanna Schonfield advised the jury that a “warmth of ardour” protection didn't jive with Castaneda’s calm demeanor in courtroom and when he took the stand in his personal protection final week. Castaneda admitted he had killed Lopez to police investigators and mentioned Lopez had destroyed his life, she mentioned.
“He himself admitted that he killed Victor as revenge for what he had carried out to him,” Schonfield mentioned. “Revenge will not be manslaughter.”
Even when Castaneda believed he was appearing in self protection, Schonfield mentioned, there was “no justification” for his fourth and ultimate shot to Lopez’s head as the person lay unarmed, injured and fallen to the bottom on the facet of the street close to the place the 2 males had crashed their vehicles.
“Your rights as a human being say you don’t have to attend to get beat up,” Bartle later argued.
Bartle, whose job is to boost cheap doubt within the minds of the jury, mentioned the District Legal professional’s Workplace had not confirmed a motive of their case, although the actual fact of Castaneda fatally capturing Lopez was not in query. Castaneda, he mentioned, was constructing a brand new life for himself in Mexico and had every part to lose.
Bartle defined inconsistencies heard “over and time and again” in Castaneda’s testimony by aligning the person’s expertise in killing Lopez with the trauma felt by a soldier after their first confirmed kill in battle.
“It means he doesn’t bear in mind what occurred,” Bartle mentioned. “As a result of he was within the throws of ardour.”
Closing arguments within the case have been scheduled to conclude Wednesday earlier than Santa Cruz County Superior Court docket Decide Stephen Siegel.