On April 7, a Santa Maria jury in what’s become known as the U-Haul murder trial found five out of six defendants guilty of the March 2013 gang slaying of 28-year-old Anthony Ibarra.
The court clerk read the guilty verdicts for defendants Ramon Maldonado, Reyes Gonzales, David Maldonado, Santos Sauceda, and Jason Castillo.
The jury hung 8-4 on a verdict for Anthony Solis, and Judge Rick Brown declared a mistrial for that defendant.
Audible cries came from relatives of some of the defendants as the verdicts were read. A court bailiff advised family members to withhold emotion as best they could.
The defendants remained stoic throughout the verdict announcement. Prosecutors alleged that the six defendants played a role in beating and stabbing Ibarra to death over a drug debt inside a home in the 1100 block of West Donovan Road in Santa Maria on March 17, 2013. Ibarra’s body was found several days later in the back of a U-Haul truck parked in a residential area in Orcutt.
The jury, comprised of seven women and five men, began deliberating the verdict on March 24 after 10 weeks of testimony.
Brown praised the jury for essentially trying six cases at once.
“You have been a jury on an extraordinary case,” the judge said.
The defendants have a right to be sentenced within 20 court days of the verdict, he explained.
This article appears in Apr 9-16, 2015.