What happened the night a Modesto taco truck owner was killed? Hearing lays out timeline
After two days of evidence, a Stanislaus County superior court judge ruled Wednesday during a court hearing to keep a 13-year-old accused of killing a food truck owner detained while awaiting further court appearances.
The juvenile was arrested and charged with murder in connection to the Feb. 16 death of Rafael Avila-Rodriguez, 67, who was shot while working at his Mexican food truck in the Airport Market parking lot.
The juvenile, whose name is not being published because of his age, is being held in Stanislaus County Juvenile Hall.
Through police testimony and surveillance camera footage, deputy district attorney Jon Appleby laid out a timeline of events that apparently ties the 13-year-old to the crime.
Modesto Police Department Detective Randy Bolinger testified that surveillance footage from about 4:30 p.m. that day placed the juvenile at Le Johns Market, about a half-mile away from where Avila-Rodriguez was later killed.
The video reportedly shows a person alleged to be the 13-year-old wearing gray sweats, a gray jacket and red T-shirt along with a blue Los Angeles Dodgers baseball cap with white lettering. The video was not visible on the court’s livestream.
Another officer, Michael Rokaitis, said he was near Le Johns Market around the same time and noticed the suspect in a group with three other people. Rokaitis said he knew all four from multiple previous encounters he’d had with them.
Rokaitis described the juvenile’s outfit as similar to what could be seen in the video, including the sweats, jacket and Dodgers hat.
More surveillance footage captured from near the taco truck around 8:15 p.m. showed the shooter wearing the same outfit and firing one bullet at Avila-Rodriguez. A blue Dodgers hat matching the one allegedly worn by the juvenile was found at the scene after the shooter fled.
The juvenile called his father three times in the 10 minutes after the shooting, police said they learned from the father’s cell phone call log. The father told police he picked his son up at nearby Oregon Park at 8:25 p.m.
Police arrested the juvenile at a traffic stop about four hours after the shooting. He was a passenger in the car. A second male, who was not identified in court, was also seen in both videos with the suspect. Rokaitis also identified the second person as one of the other people in the group he saw.
The second person was brought in for questioning and identified the juvenile as the shooter, MPD Detective Derrick Letsinger said during his testimony.
Once the juvenile was detained, Letsinger swabbed his hands for gunshot residue. Letsinger said the juvenile was more relaxed when he swabbed his left hand.
“As I switched and began to collect the sample from the right hand, he tensed up,” Letsinger said.
Letsinger said the juvenile rubbed his right hand on his forehead and through his hair and started to move around much more.
The juvenile’s lawyer, Alonzo Gradford, suggested his client may have been crying and wiping tears from his eye.
He also argued gunshot residue could have come from Letsinger’s firearm or one of the other officers who was interrogating the juvenile.
However, Judge Rubén Villalobos said he was more interested in the juvenile’s response to the swab than the presence of any residue.
Letsinger also collected the juvenile’s clothing, including gray sweatpants, a red T-shirt and a gray jacket similar to the ones seen in the video.
Gradford said the juvenile could have been nervous about how non-Black officers would treat him as a Black boy, given “everything that’s been going on in current times.”
“That could have led to him acting one way or another,” Gradford
In his ruling to keep the juvenile detained, Villalobos noted the videos don’t show enough to positively identify the suspect. However, the officers’ supporting testimony and details about the hat, clothing and juvenile’s response to the gunshot residue test were enough to meet the burden required for the hearing.
The juvenile’s next court date is scheduled for April 6.
This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 9:43 AM.
