Not guilty plea in fatal ’19 car-to-car shooting
SAN DIEGO
Three men accused in a fatal car-to-car shooting Bay Terraces last year had been out hunting for a member of a rival gang to kill, a prosecutor said Thursday.
The new detail in the slaying of Joaquin Ruiz, 20, was revealed in San Diego Superior Court during the arraignment of the first of the three defendants, John Gonzalez Orozco, who pleaded not guilty to murder and other charges in the 2019 shooting.
San Diego police arrested Orozco, 26, last week in connection with the slaying. Earlier this week, investigators arrested two more men — National City residents Kevin Herrera, 26, and Ethan Apan, 28 — in connection with the same shooting. Herrera and Apan were charged in the same complaint as Orozco, but is not clear when they will be arraigned, given COVID-19-driven delays in court scheduling.
In court Thursday, Deputy District Attorney Robert Eacret said the three men had armed themselves July 12, 2019, “and set out hunting ” for a rival gang member in retaliation for the fatal shooting of an “allied gang member” a week earlier.
According to Eacret, they tracked down Ruiz, drove up alongside him and opened fire with a semi-automatic rif le.
The incident happened shortly before midnight on Paradise Valley Road near Woodman Street. San Diego police, responding to a 911 call reporting a car crash, found Ruiz unconscious in the driver’s seat. He had been shot and soon died at a hospital.
In court Thursday, Eacret said a search warrant served at Orozco’s home in April turned up hundreds of rounds of .223-caliber semi-automatic rif le ammunition, a 9mm semi-automatic gun, a shotgun and an illegal assault rif le.
Aside from the murder charge — and a gang allegation — Orozco is also accused of shooting from a car and possession of an assault weapon.
Eacret asked Judge Peter Deddeh to set bail at $2 million. Orozco’s attorney asked that it be set at $500,000, citing several factors, including lack of a criminal record. Deddeh set the amount at $1 million.
Orozco is due in court for a preliminary hearing Jan. 4.