Boy testifies about home-invasion robbery that killed his dad

A 12-year-old boy on Wednesday described for a jury how two robbers forced themselves into their west Modesto home before one suspect gunned down his father.

The boy was unloading groceries from his mother’s car when one of the robbers accosted him. “I was grabbed by the shoulder and pushed into the house,” he said on the witness stand.

He was assisted in court by a comfort dog from the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office, which is done typically with children or victims of sexual assault or abuse. From the witness stand, he pointed directly at Carlos Ivan Flores. The boy told the jury Flores was the gunman who killed his dad, Jose Roberto Sepulveda.

The boy’s testimony Wednesday afternoon came in Flores’ trial on charges of murder and two counts of home-invasion robbery and assault with a semiautomatic gun in Sepulveda’s death.

The boy testified he couldn’t see the gunman’s face that night, because the man had a black hat pulled down, casting a shadow over his face. But he can remember the gunman’s squinty eyes; that’s how he recognized Flores, the boy told the jurors.

The home-invasion robbery occurred about 9:40 p.m. Aug. 2, 2015, at the house in the 800 block of Pine Tree Lane, just south of Paradise Road. Maria Ceja and her three sons had just returned home from grocery shopping. The mother had gone inside to put down her infant son, while her two other children were unloading her car.

The boy testified that he was forced into his mother’s bedroom. She saw what was happening and started yelling at the robbers. He said the first time he saw the defendant with the gun was when Flores kicked open a door to a spare bedroom used as a storage room.

He said his dad in that room would package cocaine for sale. But Sepulveda had told the boy not to tell anyone, because they would get in trouble. The boy never did, and he said his mother didn’t know.

When the storage room door was kicked open, Sepulveda was at a small table with baggies of cocaine and a weight scale, according to the boy. Eventually, the entire family was in the storage room. The boy testified that Flores pointed the gun at him, his mother, his father and his 5-year-old brother.

When asked what his little brother was doing, he said, “He was crouching and covering his face, crying.”

The boy testified that the gunman threatened the family. “He kept yelling, ‘I will shoot the kids in the knees,’ ” according to the boy.

At one point, the robbers ordered his mother to disable security cameras at the home. The boy said his mother was ushered out of the storage room, but she returned later.

DEADLY STRUGGLE

His father made a failed attempt to grab the gun from the robber, the boy testified, which led to a struggle out of the storage room. The boy then heard six shots. He walked out of the room. The robbers were gone. His father was injured on the ground.

“He was face down on the floor with blood around him,” the boy said.

Deputy District Attorney Meghan Anderson has said Flores and another robber were looking for cash and drugs before Flores shot Sepulveda. Amber Lunsford, Flores’ attorney, has told the jury that Sepulveda lived a dangerous life as a cocaine dealer, storing cash and drugs in his home

Ceja testified that Sepulveda drove a Nissan Pathfinder and she drove a BMW. She also said her husband didn’t like to spend a lot when going out, referring to him in court as a “tightwad.”

She would ask her husband about what he would do in the storage room, but Sepulveda would get annoyed. Ceja then would stop asking questions. Ceja said the storage room was locked almost all the time, but she never saw drugs when she was in there.

Testimony in the murder trial is expected to continue for another two weeks in Stanislaus Superior Court.

This story was originally published February 15, 2017 at 7:51 PM with the headline "Boy testifies about home-invasion robbery that killed his dad."