Opinion ID: 2675341
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Criminal Investigation

Text: By the time officers arrived at Palisades Road in response to the “shots fired” call, the van was gone, but the Buick was there with its trunk open and its trunk light on. In the trunk, the officers found Walker’s body on its back with one leg outside the car. About 9:00 p.m. Detective Ronald Anderson joined the officers who had arrived a half hour earlier. The detective discovered tire tracks in a circular pattern across the dirt median. An identification technician collected physical evidence, including tire impressions. The tire impressions matched the type of tires on Varela’s van. The technician also collected two spent nine-millimeter cartridge casings from the trunk and two from the ground behind the Buick. He lifted two latent fingerprints, one from the hood and one from the glass on the driver’s side window. On Sunday morning, the identification technician provided the latent print cards to the sheriff’s department fingerprint identification section. Around noon, Detective Anderson was notified the fingerprint from the driver’s side window matched that of defendant. At approximately 6:00 p.m., the police arrested defendant. They arrested Salvador Varela, Gallegos, and Hawkins between August 29 and September 2. Dr. Joseph H. Choi determined Walker had been shot at close range five times, each within a few seconds of the others. Walker was shot on the top of his head, in the right side of his mouth, and in the left side of his face. The wounds indicated that all five shots came from the same direction. Walker was alive when the shots were fired, but died within minutes. Several months after the murder, a jogger found a nine-millimeter chrome Glock pistol about a mile from the murder scene. Subsequent testing determined the gun was most likely the murder weapon. It was registered to Steven Glomb, 9 whose teenage daughter knew Gallegos and Garcia’s brother Refugio.11 Glomb identified the Glock as one of two guns stolen from his collection in 1994; the other was a Walther PPK/S .380. In late August, Gallegos, Refugio, and others visited Glomb’s daughter. Refugio testified he and Gallegos took the two guns. Gallegos kept the Glock, and Refugio kept the .380. Refugio testified Gallegos later came to his apartment to borrow the .380. Gallegos told him he was going to a party in Corona and wanted to have the gun in case he got jumped. Gallegos stuck the gun in his pants and then got into the front passenger seat of a gray car. A few days later, Gallegos returned the .380 and told Refugio they had carjacked and killed someone, taken $200 from “the kid,” and thrown away the nine-millimeter gun. Gallegos told Refugio they had not used the .380, but advised Refugio to get rid of it.