Post by WaTcHeR on Apr 27, 2006 11:50:12 GMT -5
04/26/2006 - EDINBURG — Benjamin Vidal Soto drew his weapon at an undercover Edinburg police officer in self defense, believing the officer intended to rob his home, his defense attorney told jurors Wednesday.
Soto, 26, is charged with attempted capital murder, aggravated assault and evading police in connection with a July 30, 2004, incident in which he exchanged gunfire with officer Rolando Anaya. Soto’s trial began Wednesday in Judge Juan Partida’s 275th state District Court.
When the shooting occurred, Anaya was conducting undercover surveillance on Soto’s home on Cactus Lane in North Edinburg about 2 a.m. Edinburg police were led to Soto’s residence after finding an abandoned black pickup truck about an hour earlier on West University Drive, a location where a 27-year-old man had been shot in the stomach.
Hidalgo County Assistant District Attorney Joseph Leonard told jurors during opening arguments that Soto aggressively approached the officer in his vehicle and demanded to know his identity. Soto waved a gun in the officer’s face and punched him.
Anaya got out of his vehicle and shot at Soto, identifying himself as a police officer. Soto then fired back and fled in his vehicle.
Soto still fired his weapon at Anaya after the officer had identified himself as law enforcement, the prosecutor argued. And he fled from a marked police car that tried to pull him over shortly after.
Soto fled to Mexico and was not arrested until October 2004, when he turned himself in to police.
But Soto’s defense attorney, Mauro Barreiro, told jurors that Soto’s wife, Yesenia Quintanilla, saw the unmarked vehicle in her neighborhood and was frightened because a home invasion had occurred at a neighbor’s home two weeks earlier. Thinking Anaya was watching her home with the intention of robbing it, she called her husband, who was not home at the time, and asked him to return.
“(Anaya) was not dressed like a police officer. He looked like a cholo type of person,” Barreiro said, using slang Spanish to describe how a gangster typically dresses.
Barreiro said the officer fired first, and that his client did not know Anaya was a police officer.
Soto, 26, is charged with attempted capital murder, aggravated assault and evading police in connection with a July 30, 2004, incident in which he exchanged gunfire with officer Rolando Anaya. Soto’s trial began Wednesday in Judge Juan Partida’s 275th state District Court.
When the shooting occurred, Anaya was conducting undercover surveillance on Soto’s home on Cactus Lane in North Edinburg about 2 a.m. Edinburg police were led to Soto’s residence after finding an abandoned black pickup truck about an hour earlier on West University Drive, a location where a 27-year-old man had been shot in the stomach.
Hidalgo County Assistant District Attorney Joseph Leonard told jurors during opening arguments that Soto aggressively approached the officer in his vehicle and demanded to know his identity. Soto waved a gun in the officer’s face and punched him.
Anaya got out of his vehicle and shot at Soto, identifying himself as a police officer. Soto then fired back and fled in his vehicle.
Soto still fired his weapon at Anaya after the officer had identified himself as law enforcement, the prosecutor argued. And he fled from a marked police car that tried to pull him over shortly after.
Soto fled to Mexico and was not arrested until October 2004, when he turned himself in to police.
But Soto’s defense attorney, Mauro Barreiro, told jurors that Soto’s wife, Yesenia Quintanilla, saw the unmarked vehicle in her neighborhood and was frightened because a home invasion had occurred at a neighbor’s home two weeks earlier. Thinking Anaya was watching her home with the intention of robbing it, she called her husband, who was not home at the time, and asked him to return.
“(Anaya) was not dressed like a police officer. He looked like a cholo type of person,” Barreiro said, using slang Spanish to describe how a gangster typically dresses.
Barreiro said the officer fired first, and that his client did not know Anaya was a police officer.