People v. Castro CA1/4

I. BACKGROUND

A. Evidence at Trial 1. The Prosecution’s Case a. The Viper Lounge Homicide On August 30, 2008, a fistfight broke out between two groups of people at the Viper Lounge in Hayward. Two Hispanic males fired gunshots, killing one person. After reviewing surveillance videotape of the incident and interviewing witnesses, police arrested several people who they believed had been involved in the fight, including

1 Adelino Lopes. During a police interview after his arrest, Lopes identified the two shooters on the video as Rene Rebuelta and Ignacio Contreras. Rebuelta and Contreras were arrested and charged with murder. During discovery in Rebuelta’s case, a police report that noted Lopes had identified Rebuelta and Contreras as the shooters was disclosed to defense counsel. On June 3, 2011, Rebuelta entered a plea of guilty to voluntary manslaughter. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison. b. The Plan to Kill Lopes Gabriel Cota was a member of Norteños Most Deadly (NMD), a Norteño- affiliated gang. Castro, a distant cousin of Cota’s, was a leader of NMD and was able to get Cota out of another gang and into NMD without being “jumped in.” Cota knew…