2014 Calexico kidnapping case dismissed
EL CENTRO — The county District Attorney’s O ce last week dismissed its case against three defendants alleged to have kidnapped, beat and robbed a Calexico teen in 2014, citing issues with the investigation’s evidence and the victim’s credibility.
The case’s dismissal on Feb. 7 capped four years of frustration for Mohamed Asiad, father of the alleged victim, Mussa Asiad, who was 17 at the time of the incident.
“It’s been a nightmare for me and my family,” Asiad said. “We believe the system did not serve us and did not bring justice to my son.”
Speaking to the media Thursday, Asiad said he and his family have no choice but to put the matter behind them and move on with their lives.
He also apologized for previous remarks he had made publicly rebuking the DA’s O ce for its perceived failure to successfully prosecute the case.
Asiad’s change of heart resulted from a recent meeting he and his son’s private attorney had with the DA’s O ce, where agency o cials explained why they could no longer move forward with the yearslong case.
The prosecution’s case had been undermined partly by issues that arose with the chain of custody for physical evidence collected during the investigation, stated county Deputy District Attorney Michael Domenzain.
The issues with the physical evidence’s chain of custody came to light as a result of defense attorney Chris Yturralde’s Pitchess motion that authorized the review in December 2017 of the personnel files of two Calexico police officers who had assisted in the investigation and handled the evidence in question. Those two officers were later fired under a cloud of suspicion following the November 2014 arrival of thenchief Michael Bostic and a subsequent raid of the police station by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Although the contents of those personnel files remain under a court-ordered protective order, that information would have likely resulted in the exclusion of the physical evidence at trial, Domenzain said in a written statement.
“We were not in a position to legally or ethically reconcile the chain of custody for the physical evidence in the case that would have been favorable to the prosecution, rather the state of the evidence was exculpatory to the defense,” Domenzain stated.
Further undermining the prosecution’s case was concerns related to the credibility of the victim and his father, both of whom had made “demonstrably false and inconsistent statements” in public and in court on numerous occasions, Domenzain said.
Nor was the DA’s Office able to confirm statements made by Mussa Asiad about him possessing incriminating messages that were allegedly sent to him through social media from one of the perpetrators in this case.
In an attempt to corroborate the victim’s statements, search warrants were executed on the defendant’s social media accounts, resulting in a review of more than 30,000 pages of information, none of which corroborated the victim’s statements, Domenzain stated.
“Based on this information we were not in a position to proceed without running the risk of violating our legal and ethical obligations,” he said.
“While we understand the victim’s frustration we cannot and will not ever bend our legal, ethical, and moral obligations to turn over exculpatory information to a defendant or his/her attorney merely to obtain a conviction in a criminal case.”
The three defendants were alleged to have picked up Mussa Asiad at around 6 p.m. Oct. 17, 2014, as he walked in the 1200 block of C.N. Perry Avenue, and subsequently beat and robbed him.
Asiad was reportedly the ex-boyfriend of defendant Sinai Zepeda, who along with Jesus Junior Flores, had faced felony charges of robbery, false imprisonment and making criminal threats, a misdemeanor.
Co-defendant Esteban Santos had faced a charge of kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, robbery, false imprisonment, all felonies, and making criminal threats.