BENTON COUNTY : 2 plead guilty in passenger’s shooting death
Posted on Saturday, July 12, 2008
BENTONVILLE — The man who shot and killed a father of four at a Lowell intersection in 2006 and his accomplice will spend the rest of their lives in prison after accepting a plea deal on Friday. Serafin Sandoval-Vega, 21, pleaded guilty to capital murder while Manuel Enrique Camacho, 27, pleaded guilty to being an accomplice to capital murder. Benton County Circuit Judge Tom Keith sentenced them to life in prison. In Arkansas, defendants given a life sentence aren’t eligible for parole. The Rogers men pleaded guilty on what would have been the fourth day of jury selection at their trial. They avoided the death penalty sought by prosecutors.
Daniel Ray Francis, 32, of Little Flock was shot in the back of the head while riding in a friend’s car on May 6, 2006. Prosecutors said the shooting at U. S. 71 Business and Pleasant Grove Road was gang-related.
At the plea hearing, Sandoval-Vega and Camacho both cried, apologized and asked for forgiveness from the Francis family.
“You’ve finally quit making excuses and agreed to accept your punishment,” widow Twyla Francis said at the hearing. “But that doesn’t make everything OK. Daniel is still dead.”
Driver Tracy Stith told police he and Daniel Francis encountered a Honda Civic that raced behind their vehicle, cut in front of them and braked. Three gunshots came from behind a rolled-down, tinted back-seat window.
While Francis lay comatose in the hospital that night, his then-pregnant wife thought about how good he had been to her and their four children, she said in court Friday.
“Dan was my first boyfriend, my first kiss, my champion, my supporter,” Twyla Francis said. “He loved me, and every time I told him we were expecting a baby, his face lit up.”
Doctors took Daniel Francis off life support two days after the shooting. A week later, Twyla Francis had a miscarriage.
“I’m at peace with this outcome because you won’t be able to murder anyone else’s daddy,” she told Sandoval-Vega and Camacho.
Buford Francis, 76, leaned on a cane and said his son was a Christian who loved people and didn’t discriminate.
“Dan would have never harmed you,” he told the defendants.
Camacho and Sandoval-Vega addressed the Francis family and several of their own rela- tives, who sat wet-eyed in the courtroom.
“I want to say to the family that I’m sorry,” Camacho said. “I know words can’t bring him back, but I hope and pray you will find it in your hearts to forgive me.”
Then he wept softly and spoke to his family in Spanish, touching his closed fist to his chest.
Sandoval-Vega looked out into the courtroom and spoke to his father whom he followed to the United States when he was 14.
“When I was in Mexico, I told my dad I was going to come up here and help him,” he said, sobbing. “Now, I did this very wrong thing, and I’m so sorry, Papa.”
After the hearing, defense attorney Tim Buckley said that Sandoval-Vega wanted to plead guilty early on, but that Camacho wanted to take his chances at trial.
“Manuel has never really valued his life all that much,” said Buckley, who represented Camacho. “He grew up in poverty in Mexico and was involved in gangs in California. He always thought he’d be dead by now.”
Then on Thursday, Camacho spoke to Louis Lim, one of Sandoval-Vega attorneys, and it struck a chord, Buckley said.
“He realized that it wouldn’t be fair to force Serafin to go to trial,” Buckley said. “He decided that he couldn’t do that to Serafin.
During jury selection, several potential jurors were dismissed after they said they were staunch supporters of the death penalty. Others said they thought the defendants were guilty.
At trial, prosecutors were going to argue that Camacho, the driver, encouraged Sandoval-Vega to shoot at the other car, possibly as part of a gang initiation. Sandoval-Vega used Camacho’s. 357 handgun to fire three shots from the back seat of Camacho’s car.
A third defendant, Roxana Hernandez, Camacho’s frontseat passenger, was going to testify against both men. She’s charged with being an accomplice to capital murder, but a trial date hasn’t been set.
Prosecuting Attorney Van Stone said Friday that Hernandez, 23, of Bentonville will get leniency, but he wouldn’t elaborate.
“ She helped our case in a substantial way and she’ll benefit from that,” he said.
Stith told police he and Francis first noticed Camacho’s black Honda Civic after the two men left County Line Liquor in Springdale.
“Look out for the guys behind us,” Francis said to Stith, his co-worker at J. B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. of Lowell.
Stith said the Honda sped up behind his Acura, then quickly passed it. The Civic whipped in front of Stith’s car and applied the brakes three times.
Stith drove behind the Civic for a while, then passed it. He got in front of the car and, too, tapped his brakes. The two cars separated and continued north on 71 B. At Pleasant Grove Road, the Civic pulled up along Stith and Francis and the tinted passenger window went down. A gun came out and began firing.
Francis was struck three times. Stith said he got the Civic’s license plate and called 911.
Stone said Friday that Hernandez would have testified that Camacho said, “They need to learn to respect us,” when telling Sandoval-Vega to fire at Stith’s car.
“The defendants were out for trouble that day and unfortunately Dan Francis and Tracy Stith got in their way,” Stone said.
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