A teenager accused of shooting and killing a 3-month-old boy in East Palo Alto in June sought to have charges against him dismissed Friday (Dec. 16) in San Mateo County Superior Court.
Fabian Zaragoza, 17, and an unidentified accomplice allegedly fired 15 gunshots into the vehicle containing baby Izack Jimenez Garcia, his parents Ivonne Garcia Lopez and Oscar Jimenez, and 3-year-old brother on June 5, 2011.
The family had just left a party on Wisteria Street and police believe the shooting was a case of mistaken identity. The infant was killed as his mother shielded the older boy in the car’s back seat. Both parents were injured but survived.
On Aug. 17, 2011, the San Mateo County Criminal Grand Jury returned an indictment charging Zaragoza with murder, the special circumstance of lying in wait, two counts of attempted murder with the infliction of great bodily injury, and use of a firearm.
Zaragoza’s attorney, Peter Goldscheider, on Friday argued that evidence presented to the grand jury was insufficient to support the charges. But Criminal Presiding Judge Lisa Novak rejected the motion to dismiss. She set the trial for July 9, 2012. A pretrial conference is scheduled for April 9, 2012.
Zaragoza will be tried as an adult and remains in custody on no bail status. If convicted of all charges, he faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Yeah, I’m sure he’d love to have the charges dismissed. If convicted, incarcerated for life seems very appropriate. The parents of the 3-month-old would hope for a worse fate no doubt.
The only thing he should be seeking is forgiveness. Lock him up and throw away the key.
Insufficient evidence is serious. No matter how awful the crime, a person is absolutely entitled to be PROVED guilty. If this youth committed this act, he has a debt to pay. Life imprisonment is an economic burden, not a way to improve society or reform a wayward child. At 17, I wonder about his family and his friends… He is a child himself. It’s tempting to get mad and punish people, but that won’t actually make us all safer, or make society more humane, or prevent another young person from accessing a deadly firearm, and so on. I have such immense respect for the judicial system we have evolved in this country, but it’s disheartening when it reinforces larger social ills. This is a tragedy all around.