Woodland murder case ends in a guilty verdict
After a decade, the man accused of a Woodland shooting has been found guilty of murder among other crimes by a Yolo County jury.
Jose Luis Gomez Arreola a 36-year-old resident of Fairfield
was found guilty of one count of murder, three counts of attempted murder and eight counts of assault with a firearm, according to a statement from the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office on Friday.
The trial for Arreola lasted two months, and the jury delivered its verdict Thursday.
“Those tenacious and dedicated detectives never gave up,” stated District Attorney Jeff Reisig about the Woodland Police Department. “This is one of those successes where though justice was delayed, it was not denied.”
Arreola was arrested in Idaho in July 2020 for the murder of
Gabriel Villareal Ibarra, who was shot and killed outside the old La Finca de Rivera Restaurant at 534 Bush St. in Woodland on March 6, 2011. Ibarra was a resident of Williams and 20 years old at the time he died.
Police stated at the time of Arreola’s arrest that there had
been a physical fight at the bar before Arreola shot Ibarra and another man. He then fired several rounds into the crowd.
According to a statement from police, officers were dispatched to La Finca around 2 a.m. and found Ibarra, “lying motionless in the street bleeding from a gunshot wound.” Paramedics and firefighters attempted to resuscitate Ibarra, but were unsuccessful. He was pronounced dead at 2:13 a.m.
Arreola was also convicted of wounding several other people, including a 19-year-old woman. Arreola fled the area to Mexico after the shooting.
Woodland Police Department detectives secured a warrant in 2015 for his arrest. The Woodland Police Department used bank, DMV and employment records
to locate Arreola before he was arrested by Idaho State Police in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho and brought back to Woodland in September of 2020.
Arreola faces life in prison and is expected to be sentenced on Aug. 12.
The shooting was one of the reasons investigators for the California Alcoholic Beverage Control revoked La Finca de Rivera’s liquor license in mid-June that 2011.
Alcoholic Beverage Control — or ABC — officials said the bar had been operating a “disorderly house” and has been a drain on law enforcement services. It has remained closed since that time, and it appears the building is still vacant.
ABC defines a “disorderly house” as a licensed premise that disturbs the neighborhood or is maintained for purposes that hurt public morals, health, convenience or safety.
ABC officials reported at the time that La Finca and the immediate area has
been the focus of more than 80 police and fire calls between 2010 and 2011 for issues ranging from fights, assaults, public drunkenness and the March murder of Ibarra.
In addition to the 2011 shooting, La Finca was also the scene of a 2008 stabbing that sent two men to the hospital and a 2009 fight that led to a police chase and ended in a car crash. In 2007, police were called to La Finca to break up a fight after a 500-person hip-hop concert closed.
Carr said the business was viewed as a “public safety hazard.”
ABC filed an accusation against La Finca for multiple violations including alcohol sales to a minor, employment of a minor who was involved in the service of alcohol, and liquor license condition violations.
After negotiations between ABC and the owners of La Finca, the owners agreed to having their license revoked.