When asked by Dep. Public Defender William Markov why he would hide the gun, Lara said to help them avoid arrest, and that the “people I hang around with, they would do stuff like that for each other. . .”Lara said he then attempted to help Orozco as no one else was making an effort to come to her aid; his statements were in direct opposition of earlier testimony by witnesses who said he tried to drag her from the scene and urged them to help him conceal the body.Lara also said he thought of his older brother, Joey Lara, who was only 15 when he was shot to death in a gang-related dispute a decade ago.Lara’s trial started May 6 and is being heard by Superior Court Judge Herbert Curtis III. In his opening remarks, Deputy District Attorney John West noted to the jurors that Lara told Santa Paula Police detectives that it was “possible” that he fired the shots.Lara is charged with one count each of murder, attempted murder, shooting at an occupied vehicle and assault with a semi-automatic weapon; the gun was found to be the weapon used in the murder of a homeless Oxnard man prior to the shooting death of Orozco.The eyewitnesses, Lara’s right thumb print on a bullet casing found in the .40 caliber handgun and the murder weapon itself show that Lara murdered Orozco, said West.
Lara blames others for November 2000 murder of Joanna Orozco
May 24, 2002
Santa Paula News
Despite the testimony of witnesses and physical evidence linking him to the crime, Isaac Lara told jurors on Wednesday that he did not shoot 21-year-old Joanna Orozco of Santa Paula to death in November 2000.
Lara claimed he witnessed the shooting, which occurred Nov. 7, 2000, across the street from Las Piedras Park.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesDespite the testimony of witnesses and physical evidence linking him to the crime, Isaac Lara told jurors on Wednesday that he did not shoot 21-year-old Joanna Orozco of Santa Paula to death in November 2000.Lara claimed he witnessed the shooting, which occurred Nov. 7, 2000, across the street from Las Piedras Park.Orozco and her friend, Shane Longoria of Fillmore, came to the 1300 block Saticoy Street home of Florinda Ruiz to pick up another friend at about 7:30 p.m. where they saw Lara, who was a stranger to the pair. Lara, then 17, asked Longoria where he was from, a question considered a gang challenge. Orozco and Longoria were uncomfortable and said they would wait in the car; when they were outside the house, shots rang out over a wall, striking Orozco. Longoria said Lara then told him to run and as he did, he was shot in the arm.Lara, a former Santa Paula resident, took the witness stand in his own defense and said that although he did not fire the gun, he hid it inside the home as a favor to other gang members.He noted that his memory of the event was hampered by beer, prescription drugs and methamphetamines. Lara said he went outside to smoke a cigarette and heard an argument, followed by several gunshots.Lara said he could not identify the two men that then ran past him, bumping into his shoulder. Lara said the gun was either dropped or handed to him as the men fled and he picked it up to hide inside the house, out of loyalty to other gang members. He did not testify how he knew the men were members of a gang.
