Press Coverage

Hispanic convicts to wait for decision

Isabel C. Morales

Al Dia

LUBBOCK - Two Mexicans who claim there are innocent of killing a teller during an assault in 1996 will have to wait at least one more week to see if they spend the rest of life in prison.

That's because the judge who presides over this portion of their appeals decided to suspend the case until the 9th of September, since one of the witnesses refused to testify because he continues being part of the process against one of the defendants.

Jesus Ramirez and Alberto Sifuentes, legal residents of the United States, were condemned to life imprisonment by the murder of Evangelina Cruz, an American citizen who toiled in a grocer's in Littlefield. Altruistic civil employees of the Mexican government and lawyers have become involved in the case because they think that both men are innocent and were victims of police negligence and there is evidence that demonstrates their innocence.

Nevertheless, already in two occasions their appeals have failed and this is the last opportunity that they have to convince the judge to invalidate the sentences.

In the latest procedure in nine years, Mark Yarbrough, the Lamb County district attorney, was called to testify and then refused. Yarbrough appeared in the court Wednesday and testified briefly, but Thursday said that he did not remember that he was still in charge of the prosecution of Ramirez. According to the defense attorneys, Yarbrough is a key witness because he has information that the investigation against the Mexicans was deficient.

The next step is to ask a judge in Littlefield to force him to testify, which will not be decided until the 9th of September. After that, the hearing will return to the Lubbock court.

"For a long time this man knew that he would be asked to testify, and now he says this", said Barry F. McNeil, pro bono lawyer from the firm of Haynes and Boone, which represents Sifuentes and Ramirez. The defense presented a document Thursday signed by Yarbrough that demonstrates that the district attorney was aware of his conflict of interest, but still showed up to testify.

The judge in Littlefield will have to decide if Yarbrough simply changed his mind, and should be forced to step down from the case and testify. Among the issues about which Yarbrough testified this week, was the accuracy of Brenda Ayala, an eyewitness who claimed she saw Sifuentes and Ramirez nine years ago after she left a near store called Town & Country. She testified that she saw both men in the Jolly Roger store minutes before the shooting that claimed Mrs. Cruz's life.

The defense attorneys found that Ayala could not have been in the store at that hour, since the security camera at the Town & Country showed she was there 90 minutes before the crime.

"Yes, I knew that she had lied after the trial of Ramirez", Yarbrough said. Also, he admitted he did not question two contradictory reports of investigators. In one, the official who spoke with Cruz before she died said that the perpetrators were two Hispanic men between 18 and 20 years old, wearing jeans and tennis shoes. The other report of Sal Abreo shows that the suspects were an old man and a young person.

At the time of the killing, Ramirez was 47 years old and Sifuentes, 23. McNeil asked Yarbrough if the investigators gave erroneous information to him, would it be possible that innocent people could be arrested.

"Could that happen?" McNeil asked.

"Sure," responded Yarbrough.

If the judge of Littlefield decides that Yarbrough does not have to testify, the defense could lose the opportunity to establish the "confession" of the district attorney that there were errors in the investigation.