Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007

After mistrials, defendant may accept a plea offer

Despite denials, he may go along with 10 years for blinding woman

The case of Javier Mata came to trial twice in Stanislaus County Superior Court, ending in mistrials both times.

Next week, the young man who had been charged with three counts of attempted murder may accept a plea deal and 10-year sentence for allegedly shooting at an occupied vehicle, even though he told a jury that he did not fire the bullets that blinded a Modesto woman after an altercation at a taco truck.

The likely outcome is a disappointment for Michelle Davis of Ripon, a passing motorist who watched a man wearing a white Oakland Raiders jersey lean out of a car stopped on the Ninth Street Bridge and open fire.

But she thinks the deal will bring some closure to Stephanie House, who was on the phone with a 911 dispatcher when she was shot in the face about 1:40 a.m. on June 13, 2004.

"If he takes the deal, that's accepting responsibility," said Davis, who held House in her arms as they waited for an ambulance, picked Mata out of a lineup and testified against Mata several times.

House, 27, will never see out of her right eye again.

She was in the line of fire because she chased four young men in a Mustang after they got into a fight with her boyfriend at a taco truck at 14th and D streets, stabbing him in the shoulder. House's boyfriend and sister walked away with minor injuries.

The authorities said the boys in the Mustang were Sureño gang members who picked a fight because they believed House's boyfriend belonged to a Norteño gang.

Deputy District Attorney Thomas Brennan and defense attorney Ruben Villalobos said they are negotiating a deal that could be final when Mata, 19, returns to court Nov. 28.

The prosecutor said Mata would get the same punishment as older friends who instigated the fight and subsequent shooting. The defense attorney said his client, who was 16 at the time of the shooting but is being tried as an adult, is innocent but must weigh the risks of a third trial.

The case has taken numerous twists and turns in court.

Three young men who were arrested with Mata said Mata was the shooter. Two of them took plea deals that sent them to prison for 10 years each. The third was tried as a juvenile and testified for Mata, saying he told investigators what they wanted to hear so he could gain his freedom.

Mata said a notorious gang member who goes by the street name "Night Owl" fired the bullets that injured House from a second car on the bridge.

Jurors were unable to reach a verdict, splitting 6-6, prompting Judge Scott Steffen to declare a mistrial in late September.

Defense wasn't given all reports, judge finds

The same judge declared the first mistrial a year earlier, midtrial, because the district attorney's office had not given the defense all of the investigative reports it had about Cesar Perez, the alleged Sureño who is known as Night Owl.

Perez, 19, had been the subject of a trial that ended without a verdict as well. That case involved five alleged Sureños who are accused of murder stemming from a shooting death in Newman.

The alleged shooter, Perez, was notably absent during that three-month trial and jurors were unable to reach a verdict regarding the other defendants. After a mistrial was declared, a sheriff's detective tracked Perez down in Mexico and brought him back to Modesto to stand trial.

Perez asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self incrimination in Mata's second trial. He is expected to join four other young men at the defendant's table when the Newman murder case goes to trial again this spring.

Davis said House, who could not be reached for comment, has been shattered by her loss of vision and the need to testify repeatedly in court. She also insisted that there was only one car stopped on the bridge when House was shot, and no "Night Owl" was in sight.

"It wasn't one of the other boys," Davis said. "It was Javier Mata."

Bee staff writer Susan Herendeen can be reached at sherendeen@modbee.com or 578-2338.