The police confession linking a 20-year-old man to four execution-style murders in a San Bruno apartment will be allowed as evidence, a judge ruled yesterday.
The decision is a win for the prosecution which has no physical evidence otherwise placing Raul Campos in the Evergreen Ridge apartment Jan. 11, 2002. Defense attorney David Goldstein asked the interview to be tossed because it was involuntarily elicited. Judge Stephen Hall disagreed.
Hall also ruled that Campos' nickname of "O.G." — original gangster — cannot be brought to the jury's attention. Prosecutors also won a motion to admit a conversation between Campos' alleged accomplice and his cousin about the murders.
Campos is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, four counts of robbery and multiple charges related to the use of a firearm in the commission of the killings. If convicted, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.
His alleged accomplice, Alfredo Valenzuela, has already been convicted of the same charges and is awaiting similar sentencing.
Yesterday's ruling on the confession was just one of many sifted through before jury selection begins at the end of the month.
Four men are assumed responsible for the deaths of Javier Vaca, 21, Jose Alberto Munoz-Lopez, 21, Emilio Alba-Flores, 20, and Roberto Ramos-Guerra, 18. Only Campos and Valenzuela were ever arrested and formally charged.
Valenzuela and Campos were reportedly drug runners for Jorge "Chico" Hernandez, Giannini said. After fighting with Vaca over a drug debt, Hernandez enlisted Valenzuela, Campos and Lazaro Perez to drive from Los Angeles to San Bruno to collect. By the end of their visit to Vaca, the four victims were dead and $250,000 worth of cocaine was left hidden in the kitchen.
The four suspects reportedly drove back to Southern California and parted company. Campos and Valenzuela were arrested within the month but the other two escaped. Perez remains at large and Hernandez was fatally shot in Mexico earlier this year.
During a police interview following his arrest, Campos, then 17, admitted participating in the killing but claimed they were not pre-meditated acts.
Campos remains in custody on no-bail status. Attorneys continue trial motions next Tuesday and jury selection is scheduled to begin Nov. 29.
Michelle Durand can be reached by e-mail: michelle@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 104. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.
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