Press Coverage

Life Sentences Of Two Mexican Men Under Scrutiny

Betsy Blaney

Associated Press

LUBBOCK, Texas - Alberto Sifuentes and Jesus Ramirez had enjoyed a night of music and dancing at a Lubbock club in 1996 before police investigating a robbery and fatal shooting at a convenience store stopped them on their drive home.

Nothing in the car tied the Mexican nationals to the crime, so the officers let the pair go.

But six days later the men were charged with capital murder in the death of Evangelina Cruz, the clerk who was shot nine times at close range at the Jolly Roger store in Littlefield - halfway between Lubbock and Muleshoe. Before she died, the mother of four managed to dial 911 and tell police two Hispanic men between the ages of 18 and 20 and in a gold car were responsible.

Court documents show there was no DNA, no blood, no gun or any other evidence that tied the two men to the crime. Still, Ramirez and Sifuentes were sentenced to life in prison in separate trials in 1998. Their convictions were upheld on appeal.

Now, the Mexican consulate has enlisted the help of a Dallas law firm to get the convictions thrown out and new trials ordered. A hearing on the men's writs of habeas corpus, which are challenges to unlawful detention, is expected to last several days beginning Monday in Lubbock.

"We want to get them out of jail and we won't rest until that happens," said Luis Lara, who works with the consulate's office in Dallas on criminal issues.

Lamb County District Attorney Mark Yarbrough, who prosecuted both men, has recused himself from the hearing. In a statement, he said Ramirez and Sifuentes confessed to separate people about the crime and that two juries in different counties convicted each man.

"I am confident that the judge hearing the habeas motion will consider all the evidence considered by prior juries and prior appellate courts and again keep Angie's killers behind bars," Yarbrough wrote.

Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the Texas Attorney General's office, which will represent the state at the hearing, declined to comment on the case.

Barry McNeil, an attorney with the Dallas firm representing the men, said he will present several pieces of evidence that will prove the innocence of Ramirez, 56 and Sifuentes, 32.

He said there's an alibi witness - a woman who didn't testify at the either man's trial, even though she said she saw them at the Paradise Club in Lubbock about 2 a.m.

Cruz's 911 call was made at 2:08 a.m. Littlefield is about 35 miles northwest of Lubbock.

McNeil said he also has an affidavit from a Hockley County inmate who says two brothers jailed with him in August 1996 - around the time of the slaying - said they committed the crime, and bragged and laughed about it.

And, a woman who testified she saw Ramirez and Sifuentes coming out of the store about the time of the crime is mistaken, and prosecutors knew it at trial, McNeil said.

Video from surveillance cameras show the woman at the Town & Country convenience store, which is near the Jolly Roger, and at the Jolly Roger, but not around the time of the slaying, he said. The woman was at both stores about 90 minutes before the robbery, he said.

Ramirez and Sifuentes were not seen on the tapes, McNeil said.

The state's case is based upon "the thinnest of circumstantial evidence," according to court documents filed by the men's attorneys.

"It's horrible," McNeil said. "The state has the opportunity to come in and make this right, to correct this horrible injustice."

The hearing will take a few days, and then will adjourn until September, when attorneys will make closing arguments. The judge will then submit his findings to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, where the ultimate decision will be made.