One man dropped from murder case
-
img
Raymond Almodobar is one of three people charged in the December 2007 slaying of Ricardo Gonzalez. Register File Photo |
Buy photos
-
img
Daniel Ortega, one of three defendants in the December 2007 killing of Ricardo Gonzalez. Register File Photo. |
Buy photos
-
img
Charges have been dropped against Christian Gallegos, shown here during his initial court appearance, in the December 2007 killing of Ricardo Gonzalez. Register File Photo |
Buy photos
Three defendants still charged in 2007 gang-related slaying
By MARSHA DORGAN
Register Staff Writer
July 8th, 2009
May 22nd, 2009
May 21st, 2009
May 20th, 2009
May 19th, 2009
March 4th, 2009
November 26th, 2008
October 30th, 2008
October 29th, 2008
October 28th, 2008
October 16th, 2008
9 p.m.Murder charges have been dismissed against one of the four young men arrested for their suspected roles in the December 2007 gang-related slaying of Ricardo Gonzalez, 19, in Napa.
Christian Gallegos, 18, had been charged with murder, street terrorism, discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury and several other special allegations.
“I can confirm that charges against Christian Gallegos were dismissed in court on Tuesday as a result of additional police investigation,” Napa County Chief Deputy District Attorney John Goold wrote in an e-mail to the Register on Wednesday.
Goold declined to elaborate on what prompted the dismissal of the charges. He would not discuss if the prosecution had made an agreement with Gallegos to drop the charges in return for his testimony at trial against the other three defendants — Stephen Barrios, 19, Raymond Almodobar, 18, and Daniel Ortega, 19.
The three were in court on Wednesday afternoon to discuss their preliminary hearing, which was set for Monday.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Goold delivered additional investigation results to the three defense attorneys, who requested the preliminary hearing be postponed to give them more time to prepare for the hearing.
Napa County Superior Court Judge Rodney Stone granted the motion and set the new date for Feb. 23.
At the preliminary hearing, the prosecution must present enough evidence to convince the judge that the defendants committed the crimes with which they are charged. The prosecution puts witnesses on the stand. Although the defense attorneys may cross examine the witnesses, typically they do not call witnesses of their own.
If the judge rules there is enough evidence that the crimes were committed, he issues a holding order and defendants are bound over for trial.
Goold said he expects to call about 25 witnesses at the preliminary hearing, which he said is likely to take four to five days.
Gonzalez was shot in the head on Dec. 8 in a gang street fight on Laurel Street in west Napa. He died two days later at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital.
According to his mother, Rosa Vargas, her son was supposed to attend a quinceañera the night he died, but decided at the last minute to not go. She said a group of Sureño gang members came to her house and Gonzalez left with them. They drove to a nearby apartment complex to confront rival gang members. Gonzalez was shot during that confrontation.
All three defendants are being held in Napa County jail. Barrios and Ortega’s bail is set at $5 million. Almodobar’s bail is $3 million.
The goal of the story comments section at NapaValleyRegister.com is to have an open, thought-provoking, civil community forum for all issues.
What gets your comment posted?
• Staying on topic
• Keeping your comment to 300 words or less
• Avoiding name-calling
• Addressing your comments to the message rather than the messenger
What gets your comment deleted?
• Personal attacks
• Derogatory remarks
• Name-calling of any sort
• Going off-topic
• Hate speech
• Racially-insensitive comments
• Implying guilt of a subject in a crime story before there is a court verdict
• Posting e-mail addresses
• Posting comments of a commercial nature
• POSTING WITH ALL CAPITAL LETTERS
• Linking multiple comments together with "to be continued..." to get around the 300 word limit.
The fine print
- Comments are either approved or denied. We do not edit comments.
- You are welcome to modify and resubmit a denied comment.
- Comments may take several hours to be posted.
- Comments posted are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of NapaValleyRegister.com, its employees or its parent company.
- Do you have information on a story? Please go to our
virtual newsroom to send us a news tip.
- If you feel a posted comment has violated our guidelines, please contact
online@napanews.com or add a comment indicating you have an issue and our moderators will review the comment in question.
GrapetownBankerBoi707 wrote on Nov 26, 2008 10:44 PM:
omg wrote on Nov 26, 2008 11:12 PM:
49er wrote on Nov 27, 2008 9:55 AM:
YOUNGNAP wrote on Nov 27, 2008 10:25 AM:
Dwayne wrote on Nov 27, 2008 10:47 AM:
From the story, it appears the DA is holding his cards close to his chest on the matter... "
janet707 wrote on Nov 27, 2008 2:05 PM:
BLACKPONY wrote on Nov 27, 2008 2:32 PM:
BYoung wrote on Nov 27, 2008 3:05 PM:
cellsitegod wrote on Nov 27, 2008 4:17 PM:
He probably provided information on the others in exchange for dismissal of the charges or, they didn't have enough evidence to fullfill the requirments to charge him.
We'll see if he rolled on the others. "
RIVERSIDE 707 wrote on Nov 27, 2008 5:35 PM:
omg wrote on Nov 27, 2008 11:12 PM:
soccer mom wrote on Nov 28, 2008 2:04 AM:
AhStruck wrote on Nov 30, 2008 3:49 PM:
soccer mom wrote on Feb 4, 2009 1:54 PM: