People v. Farias CA5

Facts Prosecution Case On the night of September 9, 2008, at around 11:30 p.m., Daniel Villanueva, his cousin Veronica Ruiz, and her acquaintance Louie Matthew Alvarez were walking down the street. A white vehicle, described as a “probation-style” vehicle or “probation car” with a spotlight and tinted windows drove up next to them, and an occupant of the vehicle fired several shots out of the driver’s side window, killing Alvarez and injuring Villanueva. Nine .22 caliber casings were recovered from the scene. Villanueva could not see the shooter nor how many people were inside the car. When shown a photograph of appellant’s vehicle at trial, Villanueva said it looked the

2. same as the vehicle, but he “thought it had rims on it.” Villanueva did not say anything about rims when previously interviewed by law enforcement. A defense witness who lived near the scene of the shooting described the vehicle as a probation car with chrome rims. She testified it looked like there were four people in the car, and at least two people in front. She further testified she heard fighting between the shooter and the victims prior to the shooting and that “you could tell they didn’t like each…