Week 6: Santa Maria Ibarra Murder Trial

And emotional outburst by the mother of the victim in this case briefly disrupted proceedings Friday morning.

It came as the cold, hard reality of of gangs in our communities was revealed on the witness stand.

The prosecution maintains the motive for the alleged kidnap, torture and murder of 28 year old Anthony Ibarra in March of 2013 was his unpaid drug debts to the defendants all of whom have been identified in court as gang members.

“We’re now seeing second, and in some cases third generation, gang members whose parents were gang members or grandparents were gang members”, says the Santa Maria Police Dept. Detective who helped lead the case against the six defendants”, “so family has a huge impact on these individuals joining a street gang and becoming involved in that lifestyle.”

The lead detective answered questions from prosecutor Ann Bramsen about the history of gangs in Santa Maria, and the current gang culture surrounding this trial.

“We really see a lot of these kids join gangs with almost no family structure at home or have very limited contact with their parents”, the SMPD Detective testified.

“They see their family members involved in that lifestyle, they see it as somewhat normal”, the detective testified.

The police detective says peer pressure to get involved in gangs is deeply rooted in local schools.

“Particularly in our local schools, if you are being picked on by one particular gang you may see protection from another gang, a way of getting through your day and protecting yourself”, the detective testified, “if you grew up with a lot of these people and they become members of a gang, sometimes the pressure for you to join up as well, especially if you want to continue associating with them and hanging out with them.”

“Some kids just start out for the excitement, they see it as somewhat glamorous, its been made popular in movies and music, so they see it asan exciting lifestyle that they want to be part of”, the detective testified, “also a sense of belonging, a sense of joining something, other than yourself, being a part of something

The detective says reputation and respect are leading forces in enlisting young people into gangs.

“That was expressed to me through a local high school student”, the detective testified, “he expressed it as, he wants his reputation to be that when he walks down the school halls, everybody gets out of his way because they are afraid of him, because he has a reputation where people should be afraid of him, and they’ll get out of his way.”

The early Friday morning of the trial was disturbed briefly by an emotional outburst in court by the mother of the victim in the trial, Anthony Ibarra, who has attended nearly every day of the marathon trial that started last month.

The woman was escorted out of the courtroom quickly by bailiffs.

The trial resumes on Monday.

************************

One of the lead Santa Maria Police Detectives in the case was on the witness stand Wednesday in the ongoing Santa Maria U-Haul murder trial.

Defense attorneys questioned the detective about his testimony involving the timeline of events leading up to and after the alleged kidnap, torture and murder of 28 year old Anthony Ibarra in March of 2013.

“She said that he had told her that the “long-haired guy”, Jason Castillo, had come out of the room, and when he went back into the room he heard Ibarra moan and that was it”, the SMPD Detective said under cross-examination.

The SMPD Detective based his timeline of events on statements from key witnesses that have already testified about what they saw, heard and knew about the events before, during and after the alleged murder of Ibarra on March 17, 2013.

Ibarra’s beaten and bruised naked body was found two days later in the back of a rented U-Haul truck that was parked in an Orcutt Neighborhood.

The prosecution claims all of the six defendants on trial knew about the planned attack on Anthony Ibarra over alleged drug debts Ibarra owed the defendants identified in court as gang members.

Defense attorneys challenged the credibility of the key prosecution witness, pointing to their admitted drug use at the time.

“That she was high the day she testified before the Grand Jury”, the witness said, “did she ever share that information with you, prior to her testifying in court here?”, asked defense attorney Michael Scott of the lead SMPD officer.

Defense attorneys also questioned witnesses about who was in the Santa Maria home before, during and after the power outage and the alleged murder of Anthony Ibarra and the credibility of the witnesses who help police identify the six defendants

*******************

After a six day break Santa Maria’s U-Haul murder trial resumed Tuesday morning.

Defense attorneys continued to cross-examine a Santa Barbara County District Attorney investigator who testified for the prosecution about cell phone records and text messages involving the six defendants on trial as well as witnesses who’ve testified and the victim in the case Anthony Ibarra.

The prosecution introduced the digital evidence as further proof of the defendants participation in the alleged kidnap, torture and murder of Anthony Ibarra back in March of 2013.

The prosecution maintains the motive for the murder was Ibarra’s unpaid drug debts to the defendants identified in court as gang members.

Ibarra’s body was found in the back of a U-Haul truck that was left parked in an Orcutt neighborhood.