Witness describes 2003 shooting at Modesto store that killed Lacy Ferguson

A man on Tuesday described in court the moment someone fired a gun at a west Modesto convenience store, killing Lacy Marie Ferguson and wounding two others more than 13 years ago.

Isaac Warren testified he heard about seven or eight shots that night outside the Quik Stop store and gas station. He said he turned and saw Ferguson who had been struck by gunfire.

“She was slumped over,” Warren said in court. “She was the one in front of the Quik Stop smoking a cigarette.”

His testimony is part of a preliminary hearing that began Tuesday afternoon for David Aguilar, who is charged with first-degree murder in Ferguson’s death. The 25-year-old mother was gunned down Aug. 24, 2003, hit by stray gunfire in an alleged gang-related drive-by shooting.

Warren was driving his black Honda Civic that night with his brother, Anthony Warren, in the passenger seat. He had just pumped gasoline in his car and was leaving when he spotted a small black car pull up slowly alongside his car.

He said he slowed his car, because he thought his brother had recognized the passenger in the other car. The cars were facing opposite directions, and the cars’ passenger sides were close to each other.

“The passenger (in the other car) raised up in his seat and started shooting over the (car’s) roof,” Warren testified.

He said the gunman was firing in the direction of the store. Warren saw a few bullets hit a parked car in front of the store, and two guys in the car trying to get out after the gunfire.

Authorities say Ferguson and her boyfriend, John Ritchie, had just stepped outside the store on Paradise Road when shots rang out from a car that had just pulled into the parking lot. Investigators have said the shots were intended for the parked car. Adrian Vega was in that car.

Ferguson, Ritchie and Vega all were hit. Ferguson was hit in the head and died hours later at Doctors Medical Center in Modesto. The two men survived.

PHOTO LINEUPS

Warren testified that investigators showed him two photo lineups in the past several years, pointing to a man he believed was the shooter each time. As far as he knows, it was the same man in both photos.

He said he could not spot the shooter in court Tuesday while looking directly at the defendant. “It’s hard to tell, I don’t see him,” Warren said on the witness stand.

Aguilar is not charged with an enhancement that alleges he fired the gun that killed Ferguson and injured the two others. Prosecutors have declined to say whether Aguilar is the suspected shooter in the killing.

Warren testified that his brother was closer to the shooter and might have had a better look at him.

Anthony Warren is expected to testify Wednesday in Aguilar’s preliminary hearing. In exchange for his testimony, he has received leniency from prosecutors in an unrelated criminal case.

Along with the murder charge, Aguilar faces two counts of attempted murder and three counts of shooting at an occupied vehicle. He also faces enhancements to his charges, alleging that he committed the crimes for the benefit of the Norteño street gang and participating in a gun-related killing.

The defendant was found in Mexico, arrested by authorities there and had been held in prison since 2014, pending extradition proceedings. The defendant hired an attorney in Mexico and fought extradition. An FBI agent escorted Aguilar from a Mexican prison and handed over the defendant to investigators in Northern California.

Aguilar remains in custody at the county jail, and is being held without bail. After testimony in his preliminary hearing ends, Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Nancy Ashley will decide whether there’s enough evidence for Aguilar to stand trial.

This story was originally published March 21, 2017 at 6:26 PM with the headline "Witness describes 2003 shooting at Modesto store that killed Lacy Ferguson."