Oakland-Court records show that two people were sentenced to 25 years in prison for the murder of a man who was taped from head to toe in their home.
23-year-old David Martin and 27-year-old Eduardo Bibiano-Lopez were convicted of first-degree murder for the murder of 51-year-old Jose Lechuga in August last year and were sentenced on October 22. The third defendant, 24-year-old Armondo Sanchez (Armondo Sanchez) was found not guilty.
Lechuga was killed by robbers in his own home. They beat him and sealed his face and body with duct tape. According to police testimony, two incidents about Lechuga provided a potential motive: He was a cocaine dealer who traded by the kilogram, and he was exposed as an informant for the Oakland Police Department.
The prosecutor said that the house was looted, indicating that the robbery was a possible motive. The police also found empty large wrapping paper containing cocaine residues. The attacker locked the door behind them; Lechuga's son did not find his father's body until after the locksmith opened the door.
Although in different ways, the three men are all related to fingerprint evidence.
Bibiano-Lopez's fingerprints were found on items in the house and on the Home Depot bag that was apparently left by the perpetrator. The authorities testified that the police tracked the bag and checked the surveillance video of the home improvement store, which showed that he had purchased rope and tape. Similarly, the fingerprints found on the tape at home are related to Martin.
Sanchez's fingerprints were also found on the receipt inside the Home Depot bag. Surveillance video showed him and Martin at Home Depot together, but Sanchez's lawyer Darryl Stallworth provided an explanation to the jurors: Sanchez just went to Home Depot with the car and turned over the bag as the two drove away.
"The most logical time for him to touch (receipts) was before the crime and not after the crime," Stallworth said, adding that the perpetrator would touch the receipt and then tuck it back into the grocery store bag at the murder scene. He said that the Home Depot video showed Sanchez looked "not interested" and stayed in front of the store.
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During the trial, Martin's lawyers argued that fingerprint evidence was not sufficient to prove that his client was there, or that the imprint was even his. Bibiano-Lopez's lawyer Michael Cardoza said his client is planning to appeal.
"The battle continues," Cardosa said.
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