Thread: CA-State court upholds death for Sonoma County man who murde

State court upholds death for Sonoma County man who murdered family

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, June 30, 2008

(06-30) 12:37 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- The state Supreme Court upheld the death sentence today for Ramon Salcido, who murdered his wife, two daughters, three other relatives and his supervisor at a Sonoma County winery during a three-hour rampage in 1989.

The justices unanimously rejected defense challenges to Salcido's arrest and transfer from his native Mexico to the United States, his seven murder convictions and his death sentence. Salcido can appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, and has another case pending before the state's high court raising separate issues.

Salcido, now 47, used a gun and knife to murder his wife, Angela Richards Salcido, 24; their daughters, 4-year-old Sofia and 22-month-old Teresa; his mother-in-law, Marion Richards, 47; her daughters, 12-year-old Ruth and 8-year-old Maria; and Tracey Toovey, 35, his supervisor at Grand Cru Winery in Glen Ellen.

He was also convicted of attempting to murder his 2-year-old daughter, Carmina, who survived a slashed throat, and another winery worker, Kenneth Butti, who was shot in the shoulder.

His trial was transferred to San Mateo County because of extensive news coverage in Sonoma County.

Salcido had been arrested for welfare fraud in 1988 but had no record of violent crimes. His trial lawyer said he had been drunk and high on cocaine when he committed the killings, and had been burdened by debt and the possibility he was going to lose his job.

He also offered psychiatric testimony that Salcido had a paranoid personality and had been suffering suffered a psychotic episode at the time of the killings.

Salcido admitted the killings and told officers he had quarreled with his wife after learning he was not the biological father of one of their children, and shot her when she said she would call the police, the high court said. He told police he had also intended to kill himself. He left notes telling his children he loved them and "we will see each other in God's other world," and saying he had been "pushed into doing it."

Salcido fled to his hometown of Los Mochis, Mexico, after the killings in April 1989. He was arrested five days later and returned to California.

In his appeal, Salcido's lawyer contended his client, who was a Mexican citizen, had been transferred to the United States in violation of a treaty that allows the Mexican government to block the extradition of one of its citizens unless U.S. authorities promise not to impose the death penalty, which does not exist in Mexico.

Salcido's lawyer contended agents from Sonoma County and the federal government had induced Mexican officials to transfer Salcido by identifying him as a U.S. citizen.

But the court said law enforcement officials from both countries had believed Salcido was a U.S. citizen based on his own statements and on Salcido's residence in California, where he had a Social Security card and a driver's license.

Even if detectives had misled Mexico into sending Salcido to California, the court said, a defendant has no legal standing to challenge an extradition or transfer that violates the treaty. Such a challenge can be invoked only by the Mexican government, the court said. The justices cited a 1992 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing U.S. authorities to prosecute a man after arranging his forcible abduction from Mexico.

"It has not been demonstrated that Mexican officials released (Salcido) to American agents as a result of any misrepresentation," Chief Justice Ronald George said in today's ruling. Also, he said, "it is not our task to redress an asserted violation of an international agreement by a nation party."

The case is People vs. Salcido, S018814.

The ruling is available at www.couortinfo.ca.gov/opinons/documents/S018814.PDF.

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... ss.bayarea

Oh ya, they just want to pick grapes.

If anyone deserves the death penalty, it's this scum of the earth. It must've taken a good long time to kill that many people.

He told police he had also intended to kill himself. He left notes telling his children he loved them and "we will see each other in God's other world," and saying he had been "pushed into doing it."

Yeah sure he intended to kill himself, all the way in mexico, right? It's ALWAYS someone else's fault isn't it? Pathetic wimp couldn't even kill himself - he had to kill his kids?!?!?