leon roach
During the first trial of Fletes and Leon, Roach said in court that Mendoza was shot out of revenge. [...] Prosecutor Sophia Roach told the jury Fletes fired the fatal shot at Mendoza after he and Leon stepped onto Sycamore Street and Fletes motioned for Mendoza to stop his car. [1]
A jury in December 2004 was unable to reach a verdict regarding Fletes but convicted Jose Luis Leon, 21, of second-degree murder and making criminal threats in connection with the slaying. [...] I saw blood on his head,” Jose A. Salcedo testified through an interpreter in Superior Court as he recounted the April 27, 2003, slaying of 19-year-old Juan Carlos Mendoza on Sycamore Road in San Ysidro. [...] Salcedo, who was in the back seat of Mendoza’s green Cadillac, said he reached over Mendoza’s slumped body to grab the car steering wheel while a passenger in the front seat reached over Mendoza with his leg to step on the gas pedal. [2]
Roach said the witness Fletes is charged with threatening had identified Fletes and Leon as men she saw standing on Sycamore Street next to a green car moments before Mendoza was shot. [1]
CHULA VISTA – A San Ysidro man said Monday that he watched in horror as his friend was shot in the back of the head and killed in 2003 while trying to drive away from two street gang members who had threatened him. [...] She said Fletes and Leon are documented members of a San Ysidro gang. [2]
Defense attorney James Fitzpatrick told jurors Fletes is a former gang member who has turned his life around, running a carwash business and raising a family. [1]
She said Mendoza and the two men who were with him the day of the shooting have no gang connections. [...] Jesse Jose Fletes, 33, is being retried before Judge Alvin E. Green Jr. in Mendoza’s slaying and on charges of threatening a witness. [...] She said Leon, on the day of the shooting, accused Mendoza of telling police that a friend of Leon’s had stolen a car stereo. [2]
Sources:
[1] SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Metro — Man tells court of witnessing …
[2] Man tells court of witnessing friend’s slaying | The San Diego Union …