Prosecutor: Illegal immigrants shot ‘coyotes’ | vasquez, juarez, one - News - The Orange County Register

Prosecutor: Illegal immigrants shot ‘coyotes’ | vasquez, juarez, one - News - The Orange County Register

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SANTA ANA – An Orange County prosecutor told a jury Friday that two men shot and killed one "coyote" – a person who smuggles illegal immigrants – and wounded another during what was supposed to be a human trafficking exchange in a Santa Ana parking lot more than a decade ago.
Deputy District Attorney Larry Yellin said Manuel Hernandez Juarez, of Santa Ana, showed up at the dropoff on April 6, 2000 behind a Burger King restaurant and secretly handed one of two guns to Huber Juarez Vasquez, who was one of several illegal immigrants being smuggled into the United States by two Coyotes.

Manuel Hernandez Juarez
COURTESY OF ORANGE COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE
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The exchange then quickly erupted in gunfire, Yellin said in his opening statements of a murder trial for Juarez and Vasquez, and Victor Camacho, one of the Coyotes, was shot in the chest and killed. Jose Luz Garcia, who was driving the Chevrolet Suburban carrying the illegal immigrants, was shot in the abdomen but survived.
The shooters fled into the night, but Yellin said the evidence he presents during the trial will show "that the two shooters are (Juarez and Vasquez)."
Yellin said that cell phone records and ballistics tests link Juarez, who now 59, to the crime scene.
Vasquez, 38, confessed to shooting Garcia when he was detained in Oregon in 2001, Yellin told the jury.
Authorities identified Juarez as Vasquez' father when both men were arrested and charged with murder in September 2009, but no mention was made of their relationship in court Friday.
Deputy Public Defender Lawrence Volk, Juarez attorney, told the jury in his opening statement that no one at the crime scene could positively identify his client as one of the gunmen.
"He was not the man who showed up," Volk insisted. "He was not involved in the shooting."
Deputy Alternate Defender Dave Dziejowski, Vasquez' attorney, acknowledged that his client was being smuggled into the country, and that another man did hand him a handgun during what was supposed to be the drop-off behind the Burger King.
"What happened next is what this entire trial is about," Dziejowski said.
He claimed that Vasquez merely brandished the gun that had been handed to him but had no intention of shooting anyone.
But his gun went off, the defense attorney said, when the driver of the Suburban scuffled for the gun.
Dziejowski also told the jury that the evidence will show that the Coyotes had earlier threatened the illegal immigrants inside the SUV that they "could end up dead" if they were not paid for smuggling them across the border.
Juarez and Vasquez are both charged with murder, attempted murder with premeditation and deliberation and a sentencing enhancement for using a weapon and causing death or injury.
If convicted, both face a maximum sentence of 67 years to life in state prison.
Juarez was arrested in September 2009 when he was released from Kern County federal prison after serving a sentence on unrelated charges. He was going to be deported upon his release.
Vasquez was arrested the same day while in custody in Oregon on an unrelated driving under the influence charge.
Contact the writer: lwelborn@ocregister.com or 714-834-37884