Francisco Solorio and Albert Ramos were neighbors. Close neighbors. Or, as the Court of Appeal puts it, they "lived on same side of the same block in Brawley, California.
Their residences were separated by two houses." So not next-door neighbors, or one-house-away neighbors, but otherwise as close as you can get.
But they don't like each other. At all.
Amongst other reasons, Solorio doesn't like Ramos because, four months earlier, the latter allegedly stabbed the former's brother. Definitely a reason to dislike someone.
Sure, you could go to the police to deal with your brother's stabbing. But why do anything so simple as that? Instead, after his brother was stabbed, Solorio told his neighbors that he would 'handle matters on his own rather than approach law
enforcement' and that he intended to ""cap" Ramos, "blast him," and "kill him"."
Yeah, that's one approach, I guess. Though one with obvious downsides.
But one positive thing about Solorio is that, apparently, he's good to his word.
"In March 2013 Tamara and Sara had just returned from a one-hour shopping trip
with Ramos. Both had a clear line of sight and saw the incident unfold as Ramos walked
from their parked car toward his house across the street. As Ramos was walking, Solorio
stepped outside his property, walked toward Ramos, pointed a gun wrapped in a bandana
at him, and said, "remember what you did to my brother?" Ramos said, "Fuck you" and
threw a plastic cup he was holding at Solorio. Solorio grabbed Ramos around the neck,
and shot him three times in the arm, head, and chest, killing him."
Pretty bold to do all that in front of witnesses.
But fear not. Solorio had a plan.
"Tamara immediately called 911. Solorio could be heard in the background
exclaiming, "He had a knife!" Tamara could be heard saying, "That's bullshit Javier.
That's bullshit. I saw it." A knife was recovered at the scene, and Solorio had a
superficial knife wound on his arm. The prints on the knife did not match Ramos or
Solorio and instead were a possible match for Solorio's brother, Steven."
I said it was a plan, not necessarily a good plan.
At trial, Solorio is convicted of first-degree murder, and sentenced to a boatload of years in prison.
But he's going to get a retrial. Since the jury improperly discussed at some length his refusal to testify at trial. Which is a definite no-no, as well as contrary to the judge's instructions.
Now, in my mind, Solorio isn't looking all that great at the retrial either. At least if the same witnesses are around.
But this time, at least, he'll have a jury that'll follow the instructions they're given.
At least we hope.
