Opinion ID: 2515784
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Ray Juarez[5]

Text: Ray Juarez first went to the North Hayes property about 9:00 p.m. on July 31 to help his friend Richard. He left and returned several times that night. During one trip to a nearby store with Gomez, Spring, and Kim in Richard's car, a car approached from behind with bright lights, and Juarez shot his .25-caliber gun in the air several times in warning. Back at the North Hayes property, Juarez smoked KJ in the backyard with Spring and Zeek. Later, he saw Spring in the main trailer, and they started making out. At some point, Juarez saw Rojas in the Wilderness trailer with Spring. Rojas had a belt around Spring's neck and a gun pointed at her head, and told her to shut up or I'll kill you. Spring tried to get up, but Rojas pushed her back down. Juarez had consensual sex with Spring; he did not rape her. He and De Anda later took Spring home. Kim left with Richard. During the night, Juarez, Rojas, and two other men got in a blue or gray car that Juarez and Spradlin had stolen earlier and followed a Blazer that drove by the property. When the occupants of the Blazer started shooting at them, Rojas shot back at them with a .357-caliber gun and Juarez shot back with an AK-47 or a nine-millimeter gun. They then drove back to the property. After Spring and Kim left, Medina and Sanchez arrived with Gomez and defendant in Richard's car. Juarez walked up to the car, looked inside, and recognized Medina, his ex-girlfriend, but not Sanchez. Defendant gave Medina some KJ. Juarez talked to Medina and smoked KJ. Then defendant started screaming at him for talking to Medina. Defendant pulled out a nine-millimeter Uzi, but Rojas, who had been talking to Sanchez, yanked the gun away. Richard also came to see what was going on and told Juarez and defendant to stop arguing. A short time later, Juarez joined Rojas, Medina, and Sanchez near Richard's car. Medina and Sanchez were loaded and leaning against the car. By this point, Juarez had drunk about six cups of beer and was a little bit drunk. He also had smoked marijuana all day but was feeling fine. Juarez told Medina not to smoke too much, and Medina told him to leave her alone and that she could smoke as much as she wanted. Juarez went into the main trailer for about 20 minutes and then sat on the porch drinking beer and talking to Zeek. He went to the Wilderness trailer to get some more marijuana and saw a whole bunch of guys. Juarez smoked marijuana and then moved closer to the group to see what was going on. Medina was lying on the bed naked and Rodriguez was having sex with her. [6] Rojas was lying next to her with a belt around her neck and a .357-caliber gun pointed at her head. Every time Medina cried, Rojas would tighten the belt around her neck and tell her to shut up. Medina was crying and asking them to stop. She grabbed Juarez and asked him repeatedly to help her. Juarez just told her to relax and kick back. He also told her to give him a blow job. She complied, but Juarez threw her back on the bed because he did not feel right about it. Spradlin, Chavez, and Robert Ballesteros also had sex with Medina. Richard then came into the trailer and said, I want you to take the girls off my property. Spradlin and Chavez, the last ones to leave the Wilderness trailer, placed a blanket around Medina and carried her to the abandoned trailer. Medina screamed and broke a window in the abandoned trailer with her hand. Juarez then heard a pop, turned around, and saw Sanchez on the ground with Rojas standing over her cussing her out. He did not actually see Rojas hit Sanchez. [7] Juarez followed Spradlin and Chavez into the abandoned trailer, where Spradlin had sex with Medina. Medina was trying to break loose, but Chavez was holding her down, and someone continued hitting her. When Juarez told the men to stop, they told him to get out. He left the trailer and joined defendant, Richard, Rojas, and Rodriguez at the front of the property. Sanchez, who was standing by Richard's car, appeared to be crying. Juarez implored Richard to let him take the women home, but Rojas said no, reasoning: If we let `em go, they're gonna tell on us, what we did to them. And they gonna [ sic ] raid the house. Richard replied: I don't care what you do, just get 'em off my property. I don't want 'em on my property. Around this time, Spradlin and Chavez came out of the abandoned trailer, followed by Medina, who ran toward Sanchez, holding a blanket over herself. Rojas grabbed Medina, pushed her facedown on a chair under a tree, placed a belt around her neck and a gun to her head, and asked her, Do you know who we are? She cried, No, no, but Rojas said, You're lying. Rojas then let Medina go, and she ran to Sanchez. Rojas said: We can't let these girls go home. They know too much. We got to take `em out. Defendant agreed. Juarez again implored Richard to let him take the women home, and Richard said he did not care what they did as long as the women were off his property. Spradlin brought around the car they had stolen earlier. Defendant and Rojas grabbed Medina and placed her in the backseat of the car with her face on the seat cushion. Defendant, who had a nine-millimeter Uzi in his hand, also placed Sanchez in the car. [8] Defendant also had a .25-caliber gun with two or three bullets in it that Juarez had given him earlier. [9] Spradlin had a .380-caliber gun in the waistband of his pants. Rojas pressed Rodriguez, who had a nine-millimeter Uzi, to get in the car. Defendant got in the front passenger seat, and Spradlin drove away. Twenty to twenty-five minutes later, the men returned without the women. Rojas asked what happened, and defendant said he shot the women in the back of their heads twice. Someone asked where they shot the women, and defendant said he shot one woman on the canal bank and the other in the grapevines. Defendant commented, You should have seen how [the women's heads] cracked. Holding a nine-millimeter Uzi in his hand, defendant told Richard: Next time you give me a gun, make sure it works. This one got jammed on me. He told Richard that one of the women tried to run. Defendant also complained to Richard that Rodriguez had dropped the gun and tried to run. Richard asked if they threw the women in the canal. When defendant said no, Richard was angry and said: It would have been harder for them to find. It would have been a couple more days. Defendant offered to go back and throw the bodies into the canal, but Richard said they should [j]ust let it be. Richard told defendant to change his clothes because they had bloodstains on them. Defendant gave Juarez back the .25-caliber gun, which contained no bullets. Defendant handed the nine-millimeter gun to Richard, who gave it to Juarez. Juarez cleaned the gun, which had blood on it, and placed it in a bag along with a pair of shorts belonging to Medina. He then gave the bag to De Anda, who said he would burn it at his house. But De Anda returned with the gun later in the day, and Richard told Juarez to bury it elsewhere. Juarez did so near Lake Avocado. Richard also ordered the stolen car that had carried the women away be washed, taken somewhere far away, and burned. Juarez, Spradlin, Chavez, and Rodriguez washed the car. Spradlin drove off in it, and Chavez followed in his small blue Toyota. Spradlin and Chavez returned together. Spradlin did not say where they burned the car. Juarez went to the Wilderness trailer, where he heard on a police scanner that two female bodies were found on a canal bank. Juarez then fell asleep and awoke at noon. When he woke up, Rojas pulled out a black leather pouch containing some jewelry. Juarez asked Rojas where he got it, and Rojas said he got it off one of the girls. Rojas offered a piece of jewelry to Juarez, but Juarez declined. When Juarez was arrested for the rape of Spring J., he denied any involvement in Spring's rape and in the murders, and further denied that Rojas was involved. But during an interview sometime after his arrest, Juarez acknowledged having had sex with Spring. Juarez testified that he had spoken to Rojas on a couple of occasions while he was in jail following this incident. The two concocted a plan to blame defendant, Richard, and Spradlin for the murders. Rojas told Juarez that he had heard Richard was looking out for himself and did not care about anyone else. Rojas said he was going to make a deal with the detectives and encouraged Juarez to do the same. Rojas assured Juarez that if they stuck together they would both get out of jail. Juarez initially went along with Rojas's plan, but backed out when he found out that Rojas got out of jail while he remained. Sometime in 1992, Juarez told detectives that it was Rojas's decision to kill the women and that Rojas had ordered Rodriguez to get in the car.