BENTON COUNTY : Woman in car during slaying won’t be tried
Posted on Wednesday, July 16, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/231467/
BENTONVILLE — Prosecutors on Tuesday dropped charges against the woman who was in the car during a 2006 shooting of another motorist in Lowell.
Roxana Hernandez, who faced a charge of being an accomplice to capital murder, left Benton County jail a free woman after cooperating against her two co-defendants in the murder of Daniel Ray Francis.
Hernandez, 23, of Bentonville, cooperated in identifying a fourth suspect involved after Francis’ slaying, which also led to her immunity, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Francis, a 32-year-old father of four from Little Flock, was killed May 6, 2006, while riding in a friend’s car on U. S. 71 Business at Pleasant Grove Road.
Serafin Sandoval-Vega, 21, the gunman, pleaded guilty to capital murder, while Manuel Enrique Camacho, 27, the driver, pleaded guilty to being an accomplice to capital murder. Each was sentenced last week to life in prison.
The two Rogers men accepted a plea bargain Friday after three days of jury selection. Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty.
Hernandez, who was Camacho’s front-seat passenger, was prepared to testify at trial against both men.
She also helped identify suspect Salvador Carillo Gonzalez, who was charged Tuesday with hindering apprehension or prosecution.
Prosecuting Attorney Van Stone said that immediately after Francis’ murder, Gonzalez was taken by the trio to Wal-Mart in Rogers where he used Camacho’s wife’s debit card to buy bullets for a. 357 handgun used in the shooting.
“Camacho and Sandoval-Vega knew they’d just shot a man, and we believe they had Gonzalez buy more ammunition so they wouldn’t be linked to that kind of purchase,” Stone said.
Gonzalez, 38, of Mexico, who is suspected of being in the U. S. illegally, fled Rogers after the shooting and is believed to be in California, Stone said.
Word that Hernandez was given immunity didn’t sit well with Louis Lim, one of Sandoval-Vega’s attorneys.
Lim believes Hernandez’s cooperation filled a critical gap in evidence in the case against Sandoval-Vega, who confessed and wrote a letter of apology. Lim pointed out that Hernandez was with the men willingly that day.
“It seems disingenuous to say she wasn’t involved,” Lim said. “I certainly understand the idea of leniency for cooperation, but not to this degree.”
Stone said the case against Hernandez was weak and that prosecutors concentrated on getting her to cooperate against Camacho and Sandoval-Vega.
She had testified that Camacho planned the shooting moments before it happened, “checked” the gun before handing it to Sandoval-Vega and encouraged him to shoot, Stone said.
She lead police to information of Camacho’s affiliation with the gang Sureno 13 and of his juvenile conviction in California for shooting into an occupied apartment.
Sandoval-Vega, however, told police that Hernandez handed him the gun from Camacho’s glove box before the shooting.
“We don’t believe that’s true,” deputy prosecutor Drew Ledbetter said. “Her fingerprints weren’t on the gun, but [Sandoval-Vega’s ] were.”
Hernandez’s attorney, Reggie Koch of Little Rock, said his client is happy with the outcome and is going to move away and start over. She feels bad about the victim’s family and is sorry, Koch said. She admits she was slow in cooperating with police but she was not involved with the shooting, he said.
“She was running with the wrong crowd and was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Koch said.
Ledbetter said Hernandez was along that day because Camacho and Sandoval-Vega wanted a female with them when they took a 15-year-old girl home to her parents in Springdale.
The girl has never been identified, Ledbetter said.
Francis was killed while riding with Tracy Stith, a co-worker at J. B. Hunt Transport Services Inc.
Stith told police he and 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. Francis was shot in the back of the head.
Camacho, Sandoval-Vega and Hernandez were arrested that evening at a convenience store in Bentonville with the gun and the ammunition purchased at Wal-Mart.
Stone said Tuesday that Hernandez stayed in jail for two years after her arrest under the terms of her cooperation, which included ensuring her safety.
Camacho threatened her after learning she was cooperating with prosecutors, Stone said. At a court hearing in their case last year, he made the sign of a gun and mouthed “Pop, pop” to Hernandez, he said.
Last month, Benton County investigators tracked Gonzalez to the San Bernardino, Calif., area, Stone said. They expect his arrest soon.
Gonzalez also goes by Hugo Rico and Trinidad Andrade, Stone said. He’s served time in a California prison for burglary, drug counts and other crimes.
Gonzalez also is charged in Benton County Circuit Court with identity fraud for living in Rogers before the shooting under an assumed name, Stone said.
Hernandez will testify against Gonzalez, Stone said.