Judge dismisses San Pablo murder conviction against meth trafficker

MARTINEZ >> A Contra Costa judge dismissed a murder conviction against a Richmond man who was known as one of the Bay Area’s most prominent drug traffickers of the 2000s when he was arrested and charged in connection with two killings.

Citing a state law that limits when prosecutors can charge less-involved accomplices in a homicide, Judge Brian Haynes dismissed a murder conviction against Jose “Calacas” Vega-Robles, 46, for the December 2004 killing of Marcelino Guzman-Mercado. But Haynes’ decision won’t free Vega-Robles from Calipatria State Prison, where he’s serving a life sentence; the judge denied a defense petition to also throw out Vega-Robles’ murder conviction for the killing of Darrell Grokett a month earlier.

Both of Haynes’ rulings hinged on Senate Bill 1437, a 2019 state law that changed the way murders can be prosecuted. The law disallows prosecutors from filing murder charges against people who aren’t the actual killer, unless they’re deemed to have played a major role in the crime. Under the old system, prosecutors could charge accomplices to felonies like robberies or burglaries if another person committed a killing during the underlying felony.

Vega-Robles’ attorney said in an email that Haynes “did the right thing” by throwing out the Guzman-Mercado murder and predicted the defense would prevail on the second murder.

“We are planning on appealing and believe that Mr. Vega-Robles will be absolved of that killing,” Carmela Caramagno said.

The strongest argument for dismissing the Guzman-Mercado murder: By all accounts, Vega-Robles was not present in the moving car where Guzman-Mercado was fatally shot as it traveled through San Pablo. Haynes’ decision also provides an unusual end to that murder investigation: More than a half-dozen people were indicted in connection with the killing, but none were convicted of murder.

When it came to Grokett — an Aryan Brotherhood member found shot to death in the Crockett hills — Haynes determined that a “reasonable jury” could have still convicted Vega-Robles of murder despite SB 1437. In that case, jurors found that Vega-Robles and two other men — Josue Lomeli and Coby Phillips — met with Grokett and killed him, either over a drug-related dispute or a gangrelated problem between Phillips and Grokett, who were both validated by the state prison system as members or associates of the Aryan Brotherhood.

Prosecutors conceded at both of Phillips’ two trials in 2013 and 2016, as well as at Vega-Robles’ 2012 trial, that they couldn’t prove which two men shot and killed Grokett. Rather, they relied on testimony — including by Vega-Robles’ girlfriend, Phillips’ then-wife, and Vega-Robles’ brother — to convince jurors that the three set Grokett up to be murdered.

In the early 2000s, Jose Vega-Robles and his brother, Sergio Vega-Robles ran a massive meth and cocaine trafficking ring that supplied gangs in Oakland, Richmond and Vallejo with drugs. They were both cousins of a Sinaloa Cartel lieutenant, Jesus “Mundo” Edmundo Carrazco-Chavez, who would supply them through sources in Southern California, according to court records.

Sergio Vega-Robles attempted to play both sides of the fence by marketing himself to the Drug Enforcement Administration as a confidential informant, while selling drugs by the pound on the side. He was also — he would later testify — bribing a Richmond police sergeant, Mike Wang, who worked together with the DEA, in exchange for a pass to sell drugs in Richmond.

The Vega-Robles brothers also were tied in with a Sureño subset known as Richmond Sur Trece, or RST. In December 2004, VegaRobles ordered other RST members to rob Guzman-Mercado, a rival drug dealer. The night he was killed, Guzman-Mercado entered a car with RST members Lomeli, Juan “Turtle” Delatorre, and the driver, Ricardo “Fat Rick” Ruiz, according to police.

They drove a short distance and attempted to rob Guzman-Mercado, who was shot when he resisted. They then pushed him out of the moving car on Arlington Boulevard, went to his San Pablo apartment, kicked down the door and stole at least one pound of meth, according to witness testimony.

When police closed in on the group, everyone had a different story: Lomeli was nowhere to be found and is believed to be hiding out in Mexico. Delatorre named Lomeli as the shooter. Ruiz first claimed too that Lomeli fired the shot, then changed his tune and said it was Delatorre. Prosecutors tried Delatorre but after a jury hung, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Ruiz also accepted a plea deal to lesser charges.

Everyone else charged in the conspiracy to kill Guzman-Mercado escaped punishment; Sergio Vega-Robles became a state’s witness, and Phillips — who was in jail at the time — filed a successful handwritten motion to dismiss while acting as his own attorney.

Jose Vega-Robles, meanwhile, left the area for Mexico a few months later, and Sergio Vega-Robles would later tell police Wang warned him his brother was a wanted man. But Jose Vega-Robles grew lovesick and was determined to revisit the area to meet up with his girlfriend. That proved to be his downfall; he was arrested in the Petaluma area on Valentine’s Day 2007, and has been in police custody since.