Modesto shooting victim tells about confrontation

A young man who was shot in the back outside his home told a sheriff's deputy that he and his alleged attacker were in an argument on their Modesto high school campus a year before the 2008 shooting, according to trial testimony Thursday.

Jose Orozco was injured and being treated at a Modesto hospital nearly four hours after he was shot when he identified Javier Garcia as the shooter. Stanislaus County sheriff's deputy Ken Barringer testified Orozco did not hesitate when he pointed to Garcia while looking at a photo lineup of six men.

"He said they were classmates at Downey High School," Barringer said on the witness stand.

Orozco and Garcia were both 18 when the shooting occurred Sept. 5, 2008, in front of Orozco's south Modesto home. Orozco told Barringer he and Garcia argued during a confrontation at Downey High a year before. It was unclear what the argument was about.

The victim told the deputy he hung out with members of the Deep South Side Norteños gang, and that Garcia was a member of the rival Sureño South Side Trece gang in Modesto, Barringer testified.

Sheriff's Detective Darwin Hatfield interviewed the defendant shortly after he was taken into custody on an attempted murder charge. Hatfield testified Garcia was cooperative during questioning, telling the detective he wasn't aware of the shooting, was with his sister most of the day and he was not a Sureño gang member but hung out with Sureños.

During cross-examination, Stephen Foley, Garcia's defense attorney, pointed out that investigators found some bullet holes at Orozco's home about five days after the shooting occurred. In that time period, the crime scene was not secured and there's no way of knowing whether the evidence had been tampered with.

Other bullet holes were found at the home the night of the shooting.

Ceres police officer Coey Henson was a Stanislaus County sheriff's deputy in September 2008 and responded to the shooting.

Henson testified Thursday that he and other deputies later apprehended the suspect, Garcia, at a home on Alamo Avenue in south Modesto.

Garcia, now 22, is accused of attempted murder and participating in a criminal street gang in connection with the attack on Orozco. Testimony in the trial will continue today in Stanislaus County Superior Court.

Bee staff writer Rosalio Ahumada can be reached at rahumada@modbee.com or (209) 578-2394.