Thread: Confession OK'd in murder case

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Deseret Morning News, Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Confession OK'd in murder case

By Sara Israelsen
Deseret Morning News

PROVO — A judge ruled Monday that a man's confession can be entered as evidence in his murder trial.

Sergio Ramos-Trujillo

Sergio Ramos-Trujillo, 27, whose trial starts today in Provo, is charged in 4th District Court with first-degree felony murder in the shooting of Jorge Corana-Mora Sept. 16 in a bunkhouse at a dairy farm in Elberta.

Ramos-Trujillo, a Mexican national, also faces a second-degree felony charge of obstruction of justice and a third-degree felony charge of unlawful possession/purchase of a handgun by a restricted person.

After being arrested, according to a defense attorney, Ramos-Trujillo was informed of his Miranda rights — but not informed of his right to speak with a representative from the office of the Mexican Consulate in Salt Lake City.

Defense attorney Richard Gale argued during a hearing Monday that any confession allegedly uttered by Ramos-Trujillo while speaking with police shouldn't be introduced during the trial because it was obtained illegally.

Ramos-Trujillo should have had the opportunity to speak with a consul before talking to the police, Gale told Judge Lynn Davis.

"He had a right — that right was violated," Gale said. "What I would argue to the court is that because this is a confession . . . which was incriminating . . . the appropriate remedy is suppression."

Deputy Utah County Attorney Jason Sant cited previous court cases with similar circumstances, saying that in no case has a court ruled that violation of consular rights meant that a confession should be suppressed.

Davis denied the motion to suppress the confession. At the hearing, Davis noted the wording of an affidavit from the Mexican Consulate's Office.

"The consulate indicates that no one is going to visit the accused, the Mexican national, until such time as he is in custody and is charged with the crime," Davis said. "I think the affidavit itself defeats the argument set forth in the motion."

The office's policy states they will visit a Mexican national who is arrested and charged with a crime to advise the person of his rights, as well as the differences in the justice systems, Gale said.

In Mexico, an individual is guilty until proven innocent. In the United States, with the innocent-until-proven-guilty presumption, a confession can often be damning.


A jury was empaneled Monday to hear the case.


E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com

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Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Elberta trial begins, judge keeps confession

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KATIE ASHTON - Daily Herald
A Provo judge ruled Monday that a defendant's confession to killing a fellow Elberta dairy worker can be used at trial, despite a defense attorney's attempt to suppress it.

Defense attorney Richard Gale said Sergio Ramos-Trujillo's rights were violated when police officers questioned him about the death of his co-worker last year without a representative of the Mexican Consulate in Salt Lake City present.

According to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, an international treaty, when an individual is arrested or detained in a foreign country, that individual has the right to inform the consulate from the individual's homeland of the arrest or detention.

After the jury was selected for his trial, Ramos-Trujillo took the stand Monday in a 4th District courtroom and said if a representative of the Mexican Consulate had spoken with him, he would not have talked to police.

Ramos-Trujillo, 27, is charged with murder, obstructing justice and unlawful possession of a handgun. Police say Ramos-Trujillo gunned down 39-year-old Jorge Corona in the two men's dairy bunkhouse.

A representative from the Mexican Consulate in Salt Lake City was not present at the hearing, but Gale provided the court with an affidavit explaining the role the consulate plays -- explaining to suspects their rights and that the U.S. judicial system is different from Mexico, where individuals are guilty until proven innocent.

Fourth District Judge Lynn Davis said he could not accept Gale's motion to suppress the confession, based on information in the affidavit.

According to the affidavit, a representative of the Mexican Consulate visits a Mexican national when he or she is in custody and charged with a crime, Davis said. But in this case, Ramos-Trujillo confessed before he was charged with murder.

"I think that sort of closes the door on the consulate issue," Davis said. "I think the affidavit itself defeats" the motion to suppress the confession.

The trial is slated to continue through Friday.

Katie Ashton can be reached at 344-2548 or kashton@heraldextra.com.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635206894,00.html

Friday, May 12, 2006

Farm worker guilty of murdering co-worker

Ramos-Trujillo to face sentencing on June 14

By Sara Israelsen
Deseret Morning News

PROVO — An eight-member jury decided Thursday evening it was murder — not manslaughter — when a Mexican national pulled a gun on his co-worker and fatally shot him at an LDS-owned dairy farm in Elberta.
Sergio Ramos-Trujillo, 27, was found guilty in 4th District Court on three charges, including murder, a first-degree felony, obstruction of justice and possession of a handgun by a restricted person, second- and third-degree felonies, respectively.

Ramos-Trujillo will be sentenced on June 14. After serving his prison sentence, he will be deported to Mexico.

The five-man, three-woman jury had two options — murder or manslaughter — as they debated the verdict.

Defense attorneys presented the manslaughter option, a second-degree felony, which allows for the consideration of extreme emotional stress that would cause a person to take someone else's life.

The common example attorneys referenced was if someone comes home to find their spouse in bed with another person and in a passionate rage shoots one or both individuals.

Defense attorney Richard Gale argued that although the facts in Elberta differ from adultery, a confrontational history between Ramos-Trujillo and the victim, Jorge Corona-Mora, and the suspect's fear of the victim must be taken into account.

"I'm disappointed," Gale said after the verdict was read. "I feel like Sergio really did act out of anger and fear. I think that should be punished differently than someone who acts dispassionately."

During closing arguments, Gale reminded the jury about witnesses who talked about an incident of road rage and a subsequent fight, during which Corona-Mora hit Ramos-Trujillo. The negative history and fear of retaliation were so strong, Gale said, that Ramos-Trujillo borrowed a gun and shot Corona-Mora three times on Sept. 16.

It wasn't a cold-blooded killing but a crime committed out of extreme emotional stress, Gale said.

"We all make mistakes, we all have emotions," Gale told the jury Thursday afternoon. "What the law has done; the law has decided that in some cases people act dispassionately and calculated, and under those circumstances the punishment is worse than when they act under . . . emotions."

But that argument is an affront to justice, Deputy Utah County Attorney Randy Kennard said in his closing statements.

"I'd submit that most everybody has dealt with similar type of stresses, and what he did was just not what an average person would do," Kennard said. "What happened here wasn't self-defense, it wasn't fear, it was murder — intentionally killing another human being."

On Thursday, the jury heard testimony from a cultural expert, Daniel Early, who talked about the cultural differences between Mexico and the United States.

"To understand this defendant, you have to understand how he views the world," Early said. "When you come across from Mexico, you don't leave your culture behind."

He explained "machismo" or male pride, which is an extremely important value in the Mexican culture.

"In my opinion, in the Mexican culture — in their point of view — when the defendant was assaulted and didn't fight back then, then he lost honor," Early said about the fight between the two men.

That loss of honor would have led to anger and frustration, Early said.

During cross examination, Kennard asked Early about the different sentiments about murder in the two countries.

"In Mexico, would it be a crime to shoot someone based upon the facts we have here?" Kennard asked

"Yes," Early responded. "I think that (Mexicans) would feel that killing is wrong . . . but they would understand why (Ramos-Trujillo) had that anger and why he did such a terrible thing."

Three of the men on the jury were Hispanic, including one who was born in Mexico, Kennard said.


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Contributing: Jared Page
E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,640187062,00.html

Killer apologizes — but victim's family is absent

Kin of slain dairy worker unable to enter U.S. for trial

By Sara Israelsen
Deseret Morning News

PROVO — An undocumented worker from Mexico who fatally shot a man at an Elberta farm last year apologized Wednesday to the victim's family — but they weren't in the courtroom to hear him.
Sergio Ramos-Trujillo "I feel very bad about what happened," Sergio Ramos-Trujillo said through an interpreter during a hearing in 4th District Court. "I am sorry. I ask for forgiveness from the family."

Judge Lynn Davis noted the absence of family members of Jorge Corona, who was shot three times by Ramos-Trujillo last September.

"Do these fatherless children have names? Does this widow have a name?" he asked prosecutors. "This tears at my heartstrings."

Deputy Utah County Attorney Randy Kennard said there had been some difficulty contacting the family in Mexico and he hadn't been able to acquire their names.

Davis asked the Utah County Attorney's Office to try again so the family would know about Ramos-Trujillo's conviction and subsequent prison sentence. Convicted by a jury in May, Ramos-Trujillo, 27, faces the possibility of life in prison for Corona's death.

The two were co-workers at the LDS Church-owned dairy farm in Elberta.

After a fight with Corona, Ramos-Trujillo, worried for his safety, got a gun and the next day shot Corona in the bunkhouse kitchen.

Along with the first-degree murder charge, Ramos-Trujillo will also serve consecutive time on a third-degree felony charge of possession of a handgun by a restricted person, which carries a zero- to five-year penalty.

Davis ruled that a third charge, obstruction of justice, a second-degree felony charge with a one- to 15-year penalty, can run at the same time as the two other charges.

It was a slight departure from Kennard's request that all the sentences run one after the other. He told the judge he viewed the crimes as three separate incidents — first that Ramos-Trujillo got the gun, then he shot Corona and then removed the gun from the crime scene and gave it back to the friend who loaned it to him.

Based on a sentencing "matrix," or guideline used by Adult Probation and Parole, the recommended prison time for Ramos-Trujillo's crimes is about 16 years and 4 months.

However, Gale said based on research and statistics from the prison, 20 years is a more likely time frame. After Ramos-Trujillo serves his time in the United States, he will be deported to Mexico.

It's also possible he could serve life in prison.

"From the very beginning he expressed remorse," Gale said of his client. "(He felt bad) he let his anger get the best of him."

A friend of Corona's, Jose Munoz, attended the sentencing and said he will relay the information to Corona's family in Mexico. Family members couldn't attend because they don't have the necessary papers to get into the United States.

"I'm glad he got what he got," Munoz said. "I'll be there when he's up for parole."


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E-mail: sisraelsen@desnews.com

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Thursday, June 15, 2006
Elberta man sentenced in murder case

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KATIE ASHTON - Daily Herald
The Elberta man who was convicted of shooting his co-worker to death last year could spend the rest of his life in the Utah State Prison.

Fourth District Judge Lynn Davis sentenced Sergio Ramos-Trujillo, 27, to five years to life in prison on the murder conviction, one to 15 years in prison for obstruction of justice and no more than five years for possession of a handgun by a restricted person. Davis ordered that all the sentences run concurrently and suspended $25,000 in fines.

The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole will determine exactly how long Ramos-Trujillo will remain in prison.

Citing statistics from the Board of Pardons and Parole, Ramos-Trujillo's attorney, Richard Gale, said there are 209 people in the Utah State Prison for murder. Those serving time for murder who have a parole date serve an average of 20 years in prison, Gale said.

"I think he is going to be in prison for a very long time," he said about his client.

Ramos-Trujillo was arrested on Sept. 16, 2005, after his roommate, 39-year-old Jorge Corona, was found shot to death in their apartment. Corona had been shot three times in the neck. The men fought the day before over a road rage incident.

Davis, after listening to both defending and prosecuting attorneys, said his biggest concern in this "violent crime" was the victim's family.

"This court is concerned there is no voice for the widow and the three fatherless children," Davis said of the victim's family, who were not present at Wednesday's hearing. "That tears at my heart strings. I'm saddened by that -- there must be a voice for the widow."

Deputy Utah County attorney Randy Kennard said he has been trying to get in contact with the victim's family, but has not been able to.

Corona's wife and children live in Mexico and know what's been happening in the case, said Jose Munoz, Corona's friend, after the sentencing.

Munoz, who testified during the trial about the fight Ramos-Trujillo had with the victim, said he is satisfied with the sentence. Munoz said he spoke to Corona's wife, Gabriela, after the jury found Ramos-Trujillo guilty of murder.

"She is glad that the law is doing what it's doing," he said, adding he is saving newspaper clippings about the case to send to Corona's wife and children.

Even though Ramos-Trujillo has been sentenced, this case isn't over, Davis said.

"I don't want to close this file with a blank page of anonymity," Davis said about the court not knowing the names of the victim's family. "That's not right."

Davis ordered Kennard to continue trying to get in contact with the victim's family and let the court know the name of Corona's wife and the names and ages of this children.

Katie Ashton can be reached at 344-2548 or kashton@heraldextra.com.