Credibility of Ibarra Trial Witness Challenged by Defense

Defense attorneys in the Anthony Ibarra murder trial cross-examined the woman called to testify in the first week of the trial about her heavy methamphetamine use. how its affected her memory and recollection of events and her conflicting testimony and accounts since the homicide took place.

The woman, who is not being identified under court order, has given multiple accounts on the record about what she believes happened in the alleged kidnap, torture and murder of 28-year-old Anthony Ibarra inside her Santa Maria home back in March of 2013.

She testified this week, and before the Santa Barbara County Grand Jury last year, that she was inside her home on March 17, 2013 when the six defendants on trial came into her home and told her to call Ibarra and lure him over to her home, which she did.

She testified that she then heard a scuffle between Ibarra and the some or all of the six defendants even though she was in another room of the house.

The woman testified she heard Ibarra plead for his life while he was beaten, tortured and ultimately stabbed to death by some or all of the six defendants over unpaid drug debts.

The woman testified under cross-examination that she never saw the defendants holding any weapons identified by the prosecution as the murder weapons before or after the deadly attack on Ibarra.

She also said she saw them wearing gloves, dripping with sweat and full of adrenaline when they walked out of a bedroom where the Ibarra murder is believed to have taken place.

Defense attorneys tried to portray the woman as a documented liar with a criminal record who agreed to become a prosecution witness in return for her immunity from prosecution for involvement in the death of Anthony Ibarra.

The trial resumes next Tuesday after the Martin Luther King Jr. National holiday on Monday.