Opinion ID: 218504
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Vela

Text: Vela was reluctant to provide information to police because he was afraid of retaliation by the Surreño 13 gang. He did tell detectives, however, the following: Vela, out drinking with Hernandez on the night of the shooting, gave a ride in his van to Hernandez and two of Hernandez's friends. When Vela stopped near the pool hall to purchase beer, Hernandez and his two friends got out of the van and went in one direction, while Vela walked in another. About two minutes before Hernandez reappeared, Vela heard what he thought was the sound of a firecracker. When he returned from wherever he had gone, Hernandez, nervous and sweating, found Vela outside the store and insisted that they needed to leave because someone was tripping on him. [5] Vela and Hernandez then took different routes back to Vela's van. When Vela arrived, Hernandez and his two friends were already seated in the van. According to Vela, he drove, and Hernandez was in the front passenger seat. As he was driving, Vela heard someone in the backseat say, I was tripping, so I had to shoot him. After giving his story, Vela identified Hernandez from a montage of black-and-white photographs. What happened next is disputed: According to Vela's trial testimony, he could not identify the two friends with Hernandez the night of the shooting. During his interrogation, the detectives gave him a single, color, Polaroid photograph and asked if the person in the photograph was one of Hernandez's friends. Vela testified that when he told the detectives that he did not know, they responded by telling Vela that the person in the photograph had already admitted to being in the van. Vela then responded by saying, He probably was. If he is saying he was in my van, then he was. Detectives Yerbury and Ringer testified differently from Vela. They explained that when interviewed, Vela was so scared of gang retaliation that he talked about moving away or joining the military. According to the detectives, Vela minimized his knowledge and spoke in vague generalities. The detectives showed Vela a photograph of Ocampo, who was being interviewed in a different room. They did this because they were concerned that if they waited until Ocampo had been booked, Vela would be uncooperative and backpedal. According to the detectives, Vela readily identified Ocampo as one of Hernandez's two friends, [6] although he did not know if Ocampo was the one who spoke of shooting someone.