Posted on 08/20/2005 8:25:39 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
EDINBURG — Jurors on Thursday viewed several high-powered assault weapons connected to the January 2003 murders of six men in north Edinburg.
Rodolfo "Kreeper" Medrano, 26, stands trial on capital murder charges he bought and kept those weapons for lower-ranking Tri-City Bomber gang members who used them in the six-person homicide. Police found the victims shot several times within and outside two small homes at 2915 E. Monte Cristo Road.
Forensic scientist Alex Madrigal, who works at the McAllen crime lab, testified he accompanied investigators from several law enforcement agencies to different locations in the Rio Grande Valley including Weslaco, Brownsville and Elsa on Jan. 24, 2003, the same day Medrano and several men were arrested.
In Elsa, they found a weapon case in the trunk of a car which contained ammunition clips, a bag of bullets, five SKS assault weapons, 12-gauge shotgun, a broken 45-caliber semi automatic weapon and a rifle. Madrigal testified he inspected the weapons under a high-powered microscope and found small blood stains on an SKS firearm. A DNA test revealed the blood came from Juan Delgado Jr., one of the victims in the Monte Cristo murders.
The DNA analyzed did not match Medrano but he did not test for fingerprints, Madrigal said under cross-examination from Medrano’s defense attorney Hector Villarreal.
Although Hidalgo County prosecutors acknowledge Medrano was not at the scene when the murders occurred, he is being tried under the law of parties, which allows a person to face punishment if he or she conspires with others to commit a criminal act that ends in murder. Medrano has told police he was at home with his wife on the night of the murders and learned of the slayings on the news the next day.
He is the third of 13 men charged in the slayings to stand trial. Two are already on death row —Juan Navarro Ramirez and Humberto "Gallo" Garza. A third codefendant in the Monte Cristo murders is also on death row for a separate multi-homicide also tied to the Tri-City Bombers — Robert Gene "Bones" Garza — who was convicted in the 2002 murders of four women in Donna. Medrano is also indicted in the Donna murders. The seven remaining co-defendants are awaiting separate trials in Hidalgo County Jail, and two others have not been arrested.
Investigators from the Texas Department of Public Safety assisted Edinburg Police collect and analyze evidence collected at the scene. At the time the McAllen crime lab was closed due to an internal audit that found deficiencies, Madrigal testified. He also said he helped investigators collect evidence such as a black-knit hat, shoe prints and blood smears. Madrigal sent the items to Austin for analysis.
Medrano’s capital murder trial began Monday in 332nd state District Judge Mario Ramirez’s court.
Testimony will continue today.
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Brittney Booth covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4437.
Tim Counts, of the Texas Department of Public Safety’s crime lab, shows members of the jury in Rodolfo Medrano’s capital murder trial — for alleged involvement in the Edinburg massacre of 2003 —how a magazine cartridge fits into a model of an AK-47 during testimony Thursday in the 332nd District Court in Edinburg.
Looks like an SKS to me.
South Texas Ping!
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off this South Texas/Mexico ping list.
Was his cell phone checked?
When guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns
Yep, looks like a modified SKS to me, too. In the article all I saw were references to semi-auto weapons. In my humble opinion, a true "assault weapon" is selective-fire, not semi-auto only.
Once again the mainstream media is showing its ignorance about firearms. No, it's not ignorance. It's a deliberate campaign to demonize all guns and all gun owners.
contained ammunition clips, a bag of bullets, five SKS assault weapons, 12-gauge shotgun, a broken 45-caliber semi automatic weapon and a rifle.
The SKS is a semiautomatic rifle. It is not an assault rifle. Real assault rifles have a selector switch that controls how many bullets will be fired with one pull of the trigger. The usual pattern is up to four selections: safe or no bullets, one bullet at a time, a burst of three bullets or fully automatic fire like a machine gun. That selector switch is what makes a real assault rifle different from a semiautomatic rifle. The SKS has never had this selector switch. It has always been a semiautomatic rifle--one bullet for each pull of the trigger.
The phrase "assault rifle" is much more terrifying to the average person than the phrase "semiautomatic rifle." Saying something is an assault rifle when it's not is a way of inducing fear. For government to be successful in banning weapons of any kind, fear is an important tool. Federal and state governments have been successful in banning weapons by falsely labeling them "assault weapons." The media have been very helpful, even excited sometimes, when it comes to spreading these fear-inducing labels.
is he trying to fit an AK-47 magazine into an SKS rifle?
Since I don't keep up with details on weapons - the SKS was used in Vietnam as a sniper weapon - magazine only held 5 or 6 (?) rounds. I can't remember if it was capable of automatic fire which would qualify as an assault type weapon.
You answered my question while I was still typing it!
;>)
Thanx.
Some have been known to be fully automatic....
but not intentionally
Did you see the episode of "Penn & Teller Bullshit!" on gun control? They had a gang member on there saying if the cops take his guns, he'll buy another one. Or maybe two more -- no problem. He was already a criminal so he didn't believe the gun laws applied to him.
He also said he liked unarmed citizens, as it makes his job easier.
Also intentionally!;^)
It is possible to modify an SKS to use AK mags, but the feed angle is not quite right. There are also some mags made with an extension to replace the SKS mag box.
You can buy SKS mags for up to 30 rounds, and they can be modified for automatic fire.
Bump
An old friend of mine lives in Donna. He was the son of one of the midwesterners who moved to the Valley in 1910-1920 to put in farms and orange orchards.
In 1972, he drove me around and showed me areas of the town where people were living in mud and wattle huts, probably the last in the United States.
He's right, they don't. Courts have ruled that you can not charge a felon with having an unregistered gun, because of the Constitiution's 5th Amendment guarentee against self incrimination.
Mark
You can, however, charge him/her with "being a felon in possession of a firearm"..
That still applies in "most" states, if not all...
There may be a federal statute as well..
Exactly, and that's been ruled OK in courts. However, you know how sometimes prosecuters will try throwing everything they can think of at a wall to see what will stick, and this was tried, and dismissed on appeal.
Mark
" the SKS was used in Vietnam as a sniper weapon"
Hmmm..must have been more accurate than any SKS I have shot.
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