Double Murder was the Charge

This case has been adjudicated in court, so it can be spoken of in this forum. This case took some unusual twists and turns with a range of emotions on all sides of the fence. I will use first names of the persons involved only to protect my identity.

Griselda is a middle-aged divorcee. Depending on which family members you speak with, they either love her or hate her. Mostly hate her because of her drinking. She also left her husband of many years and is now dating Rony, a man half her age.

Griselda and Rony are driving to Griselda's daughter's house, where they are going to attend her grandson's one-year birthday party/Halloween party. Might as well have a two-for-one party, right? Griselda is driving, gets pulled over by the police for a routine traffic stop and Griselda gets cited for having an open container of alcohol in the car. Rony was the one who was drinking but Griselda got cited; mainly because she was belligerent and confrontational to the officers. (That's never a good idea).

Since it is a Halloween party, Griselda is dressed as Bat Girl, and Rony is dressed as "Chucky." They are now away from the traffic stop and at the party. Rony immediately irritates the party-goers, and gets into some scuffles. This was mainly because the family members at the party know that he is Griselda's new boyfriend, and her ex-husband is at the party too. Griselda and Rony don't stay long and leave. We never found out where they went, but we later discovered that they were drinking, heavily.

Griselda and Rony come back to the party but just sat outside in their 1998 Ford Contour. Word got around in the party that they were outside. One of Griselda's daughters went outside to tell her to leave. They started to argue, and other people got involved. Finally, after a couple of minutes of a verbal tongue lashing, the one-year-old's father went outside and yelled at Griselda and eventually put his fist through the front driver's side window of the Ford Contour. After breaking the glass, Griselda decided it was time to go. Her and Rony got into the car, and Griselda made a three-point-turn. Unfortunately, there were several people still standing in the street, and they were nearly missed by Griselda's front bumper.

Griselda went southbound away from the house. Enter Ruben. Ruben is twenty-six and has prior weapon charges, and some other petty crimes. Also, he does not have a driver's license. He does have a steady job, a wife, and two kids. It seems as though he is doing well in his life, but the alcohol always gets in the way. After drinking more than ten beers, Ruben has parked his 2008 Chevy Tahoe in the middle of the street, and got out to retrieve his family from the party. Ruben is now walking around the back of the Tahoe, and is about to get into the driver's seat when Griselda comes northbound on the street. Griselda doesn't stop and hits Ruben's front quarter-panel and then hits Ruben's door. Ruben just has enough time to get inside without being hurt.

Here is where Ruben's lies to the police and actual events intertwine. Ruben told the police that he hit his head so hard on the doorframe that his head put a dent in the metal, and that he blacked out and didn't know what happened after that. The dent in the metal doorframe was made of something other than a human head; it was about an inch and a half long, a half-inch deep, and a half-inch wide. Also, Ruben didn't have any marks on his head. This would have caused a horrible laceration to his head, if it were true.

What is true, according to witnesses, is that Ruben yelled, "Get out of my way, get out of my way, get out of my way," as he made his own three-point-turn, and proceeded to chase after Griselda. Also, Griselda's front bumper and license plate fell off upon initial impact with Ruben's Tahoe. I don't believe it is possible to be blacked out, yell, and drive at the same time, but I may be wrong.

At this point, Ruben catches up to Griselda, who was about to make a right turn. Ruben hits her intentionally at the intersection, causing significant damage to the rear end of her car, but only minor damage to his "stronger" SUV. Ruben then continues to chase after Griselda for a half of a mile, over four residential speed bumps, and through two stop sings. According to our only witness to this double fatal collision, Ruben was about four-car-lengths behind Griselda, traveling 60 to 65 MPH in this residential zone slated for 25 MPH.

The witness, Frank, is a 19-year-old, wearing plug earrings, and is an all black clothes kind of person. I found Frank two weeks after my investigation started, and after an exhaustive residential search for witnesses. I was in front of Frank's house where he lives with his parents, and gave the flier that I had made to an unknown person who also lived at the house. Frank came out with his dad, and told me that he had seen the accident. After I gained my composure (I was quite excited as I knew I didn't have much of a case without an independent eyewitness) I began to question the witness.

Frank stated, "I was coming home from a party. No, I wasn't drinking or smoking anything funny. I was walking right here (pointing towards the south, and one house away from his). I saw the car (Contour) being chased by the truck (Ruben's SUV). It looked like he was chasing her, or like they were playing around. They were about 4 car lengths from each other and he kept going after her until I saw her car go up in the air (holding his hand at around his nose area), and then it stopped with a slight turn to her right."

What Frank didn't realize at the time was that Griselda and Rony went "Dukes of Hazard" style up and over a 16-foot wide, 20 feet deep storm drain. Their car then collided with a 5 foot in circumference oak tree with enough force to make the engine compartment unrecognizable, and to start a fire. I guess in the most poetic fashion, Griselda and Rony died upon impact, and sat dead in their seats, looking as if they were putting their heads and arms together in an embrace. It didn't even look real to me when I got to the scene hours later.

A near-by neighbor heard the crash, came out of his house, saw the fire, quickly got his extinguisher, and put the fire out. The Fire Department responded quickly and pronounced Griselda and Rony dead.

Ruben, immediately after the collision, fled the scene. Remember, he is still blacked out according to the statement that he made to me later. Ruben went back to the party, collected his family, and drove 25 miles to his house.

When I first got to Griselda's crash site, I was directed to look at the rear end of her car. There was significant damage to the back of the car that was not consistent with the type of collision we were looking at. Having that in the back of my mind, I was then directed to go to the party location, where beer cans were left all over the front and back yards (I guess the sign of a good party); although this party ended with two deaths.

My partners and I woke the occupants of the house to start our investigation of this part of the puzzle. Come to find out, one of the residents is the daughter of Griselda, who was also the host of the party, and mother to the one-year-old. Although she had just woken, after only a couple of hours of sleep, she was pretty hostile, and avoided telling me about what really happened. She finally told me about Ruben, and how he had chased after her mom, but returned within a minute. This became the mantra of their whole family.... Ruben came back within a minute of chasing after Griselda.

Another daughter of Griselda came to the same house and both sisters got into a pretty big argument. Still not knowing who the players were, I let them hash out their disdain for each other while I got the phone number for Ruben (he is a family friend). I called Ruben about 6 hours after the collision had occurred. Ruben was in no mood to speak, and didn't give me the information I needed to start a background investigation on him. He told me that I could call back in two hours. I, unfortunately, was in no position to make demands from him. His name is a common name, and nobody knew exactly where he lived, or they wouldn't tell me. Also, I just wanted to talk to Ruben, so I let him dictate our first conversation.

I had my patrol officers compose two other reports before we left: a vandalism report because the baby's daddy had punched out Griselda's window, and a hit and run report naming Ruben as the victim. My partners and I then went up to another part of town to interview a witness who was at the party. She stated that she saw Griselda hit Ruben's SUV and fled the scene. She then saw Ruben get into the SUV, and chase after Griselda. She stated that of course, Ruben came back within one minute.

I called Ruben, got his personal information and address, went to the station to complete a full background, and went to his house. Now Ruben lives in a tough part of town. I called the local station and told them what I was doing, and asked for a police car to stand by with us for uniform presence. Because it was a bad area, they gave me four units and a supervisor (even I was a little shocked but felt absolutely safe to conduct my investigation).

I met with Ruben and inspected his car. Initially we didn't know where the majority of the damage would be to his SUV. I was thinking that it was going to be in the front end mostly. I looked at the front end and didn't see a whole lot of damage, but did see a lot of scraping and some parts missing. My partner showed me the driver's side and then everything made sense. How she hit him, and how he hit her. The biggest clue in regards to Ruben hitting Griselda's car was this: Griselda had two oval shaped holes in the back of her bumper. Ruben had two oval shaped brackets on the front of his car that looked like it was a match.

As soon as I saw all of the damage I got the tow truck in route because I was going to keep his SUV for my investigation. I then questioned Ruben. Now in hindsight, I should have taken him to the station, put him in an interview room, and questioned him there. But, I still didn't know exactly what I had.... Even if I did know, how was I going to prove it without a witness to the collision that ultimately killed Griselda and Rony. I remained patient, and took him to the side of his house and he told me about the ten or more beers, and that he blacked out when she hit his car. I let him tell me his story, hoping that I would be able to refute it through physical evidence later.

I went back to the multi-three crime scene and discovered the faint tire marks left by Griselda's car as she turned the corner where Ruben hit her from behind. I composed a Assault with a Deadly Weapon crime report listing Griselda and Rony as the victims.

I got to work on the cars. I enlisted our scientists from downtown to do a thorough inspection. They took measurements, photos, and paint samples from both cars. They were able to later examine their evidence and would tell me that the black paint transfer on Griselda's car came from Ruben's SUV. Also, the holes in the rear bumper of Griselda's car were consistent with the front end of Ruben's SUV. Everything was coming together there.

I then, after the exhaustive search, located the eyewitness to what happened. After taking Frank's statement, and collecting all of the report and physical evidence, I called the District Attorney's office and spoke with the head deputy. I told her what kind of case I had and asked for a special prosecutor to be assigned. I went to the DA's office a couple of days later and presented the case with my partner there. Even though I was the primary investigator, my partner is much smarter than I, and knew the case and all of the players even better than I did. I left out many of the family members that we had contact with throughout our investigation (this story would be a novel if I included everyone in it). I also made a chart depicting who was related, and how they were involved in this case.

The deputy DA filed the case with the following charges: 187aPC, Murder (two counts), Hit and Run felony (two counts), Assault with a Deadly Weapon, and an enhancement of using a vehicle as a weapon. All told, Ruben was looking at a long time in jail. When the warrant came through, I contacted the fugitive unit within our department and got them working on picking Ruben up. They agreed that his work would be the best place to be and they arrested him the next day. Ruben had a 2 million dollar bail.

The preliminary hearing came and we were prepared. I had taken the deputy DA to the scene, and had many meetings with him to make sure that we were on the same page when it came to the case. The DA was tenacious and navigated the witnesses really well. It was like pulling teeth to get any information out of the witnesses, who were mostly Ruben's family members. Then came our star witness, Frank. I was expecting him to shine.... He didn't. He basically recanted most of what we had talked about. He said on the stand that he didn't see the actual collision and was shaky at best with the rest of his testimony. I was floored. He was the glue that kept our case together. And he put a hole in our case. Now this was nothing new to the DA, but we had already formulated a plan of action should this case go to a jury trial. It was a risky move, but we were going to impeach, basically, our own witness, with me. I would talk about our initial conversation, in front of his house, and how he turned to see the collision occur. I would throw in some other points that he seemed to have forgot.

So the judge found that there was sufficient evidence to hold Ruben over for trial at the preliminary hearing. We felt that the case was strong, but that the witness had put a dent in our armor.

Griselda's family had sat through the hearing, and did not want to go through a full jury trial. I can understand where they were coming from, but I wanted Ruben to be held accountable for his actions. The DA's gave Ruben a first offer of a plea bargain of 17 years state prison. I had heard that Ruben was going to take the deal, but then he fired his defense attorney. With additional strong urging from Griselda's family, the DA offered Ruben 10 years, with a Great Bodily Injury allegation, which means that Ruben would serve 85% of the time in jail, rather than 50%. I was satisfied because the family was happy, and I knew that a jury may have something totally different in mind; I wasn't willing to take that gamble.

By the way, Griselda had a .22 Blood Alcohol Content, and Rony had a .17 BAC. This was one other reason I was satisfied with the plea bargain; I don't think that the jury would have liked that either.

Like many of my cases involving death, they rarely come with much happiness. I was, however, comforted by the one family member who seemed to really care that her mom had died. She told me that she didn't sleep for four months while Ruben was still running loose. She told me that it meant the world to her that my partners and I went the extra mile to solve this case, so that she can have peace. She misses her mom every day, and holidays are difficult. She just wished that her mom could be at her wedding next year. All that remains of her mom are pictures, and memories.

We never located Rony's family in Guatemala.