A man gunned down a young couple and a toddler in Normal Heights nearly 25 years ago over about $30 worth of methamphetamine, a prosecutor argued Wednesday, while a defense attorney said there was no evidence his client committed the shooting outside of the word of untrustworthy witnesses.
Sergio Lopez Contreras, 45, is charged with first-degree murder for the Sept. 4, 2000, shootings of Michael Plummer, 20; Plummer's girlfriend, Adah Pearson, 18; and Plummer's nephew, Julio Rangel Jr., who was about 22 months old.
Prosecutors argue the shooting, which took place at an apartment on Bancroft Street, was sparked because Plummer owed Contreras money for drugs.
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Contreras, who was 22 years old at the time of the killings, is accused of firing more than a dozen shots into the apartment with a rifle.
Deputy District Attorney Chris Lindberg told jurors that Contreras fired 16 shots from the front door of the apartment, a dozen of which struck Plummer. Pearson was sleeping on the couch when she was shot and a bullet that pierced the wall behind Pearson entered a bedroom on the other side, where the toddler was sleeping, according to Lindberg.
The child's parents and a sibling were present when the shooting took place, but were uninjured. Plummer died at the scene, while Pearson and Julio Rangel were taken to hospitals, where they were later pronounced dead.
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According to Lindberg, one of the apartment's occupants said in a 911 call after the shooting that the gunman was a Hispanic man in his 20s who was seen in a blue Oldsmobile, the same type of car Contreras had been seen riding in with a woman he was dating at the time. The 911 caller also said that woman had brought the shooter over to their apartment, according to the prosecutor.
At a preliminary hearing last September, Vanessa Madrid testified that she was a neighbor of Plummer's. Madrid said she knew a man named "Sergio" at the time, and had only met him a few days before the shooting. When asked if the Sergio she knew may have been Contreras, who was sitting in court for the hearing, she said he looked different. The prosecutor followed up and asked if this could be because of his age, and she agreed.
Madrid also testified that she was with Sergio the day of the shooting and knew he appeared to be angry with Plummer.
The prosecutor also asked Madrid why Sergio wanted to talk with Plummer, and she replied, “... because Mike owed him money, I think.” When she was asked what the money was for, she told the court that it was $20 or $30 for methamphetamine. Madrid said repeatedly that she wanted to just pay it herself, but Sergio wouldn’t allow it. She also added that Plummer seemed to laugh the request off.
Madrid claimed to not have been at the apartment complex when the shooting occurred after her interaction with Plummer, and she had difficulty remembering the details on how many gunshots she heard. However, she did describe hearing “bang noises.”
The prosecutor followed up by asking her why Sergio wanted to talk with Plummer, and she replied, “Yes, because Mike owed him money, I think.” When she was asked what the money was for, she told the court that it was $20 or $30 for methamphetamine. Madrid said repeatedly that she wanted to just pay it herself, but Sergio wouldn’t allow it. She also added that Plummer seemed to laugh the request off.
Madrid claimed to not have been at the apartment complex when the shooting occurred after her interaction with Plummer, and she had difficulty remembering the details on how many gunshots she heard. However, she did describe hearing “bang noises.”
A friend of Contreras, Victor Calderon, was also present during the killings and was inadvertently shot in the arm by Contreras, Lindberg alleged in opening statements on Wednesday. A blood trail leading away from the shooting scene was later positively identified as Calderon's blood.
While the case initially went cold, Calderon discussed the shooting with police in 2005 while incarcerated in Alabama, Lindberg said. Calderon has since died while in prison. Other witnesses also say they overheard Contreras and Calderon discussing details of the shooting, including how Calderon was shot because he "got in the way."
Contreras' defense attorney, Neil Besse, said Contreras sold Plummer drugs and was never paid, but denied that Contreras ever went back to confront Plummer.
Besse told jurors that no witness would be able to definitively say they saw Contreras fire the rifle and that no forensic evidence, cell phone evidence, or DNA would tie Contreras to the scene of the killings.
The defense attorney said the bulk of the case against his client relied on the accusations from Calderon and others who had reasons to lie.
Besse said Calderon was arrested and convicted in 2005 for driving drunk, leading police on a chase, and killing another person in the process. He was set to be sentenced for the vehicular homicide about a month after he told police about the San Diego killings, Besse said, and was facing a sentence of between 10 and 99 years in prison.
Since the rumors swirling around the San Diego case were of a drug deal gone bad and Contreras was known as "the neighborhood drug dealer," he made a perfect fall guy, said Besse.
"[Calderon] had nothing to lose and everything to gain," the attorney told jurors.
San Diego police alleged that after the shooting, Contreras fled to Mexico, where he was arrested years later on unrelated charges. Prosecutors filed murder charges against him in 2007 and he was extradited to San Diego last year.
