Illegal Immigrant Shooting Came Without Warning

Two men accused of shooting illegal immigrants in a botched De Luz robbery fired without warning, a witness testified today.

Esau Bravo Vasquez, 28, and Ismael Vasquez, 20, brothers from Perris, were charged with two counts each of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, a count of robbery, kidnapping and making criminal threats, according to court records.

The shooting happened during a botched robbery at McMillan Farm, an avocado plantation near Caranchos and Los Gatos roads on April 7, 2007.

The suspects ambushed one of the workers, Vicente Avalos, on his way to work in the fields, where he worked for a year and a half making $360 per week.

Avalos lived in a tent on the plantation. About 20 other migrant workers lived in a camp with him, Avalos testified today.

The attack happened one morning when Avalos was walking to work, he said. The defendants emerged from hiding wearing hoods and armed with guns, one with a handgun and the other with a rifle, he said.

They clubbed him with the butt of the rifle, bound his hands with the cord of an electronic device, brought him behind a boulder and beat him, knocking out one of his front teeth, he said.

The Vasquez brothers demanded money and took his wallet, but they found only his birth certificate inside, which they tore up, Avalos said.

They held him behind the boulder for seven hours until the foreman was scheduled to pay the workers, he testified.

Then Esau Vasquez held Avalos with a handgun pointed at his head and led him to the foreman. Vasquez ordered Avalos to tell the foreman to give him all the money, the victim testified. Vasquez told his victim if he tried to run or disobey, he’d kill him. Ismael Vasquez hid watching from hiding nearby, he said.

When Vasquez and Avalos reached the foreman, he was standing in a crowd of migrant workers, the victim recalled. Avalos tried to call out to the foreman – as his captor ordered – but he couldn’t, he said. Then, Vasquez started shooting at people.

“He started firing at whoever he could hit, I guess,” he said through an interpreter. All the victims were illegal immigrants, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

He ran behind a truck for cover, but was shot in the right side of his torso on the way, he said. A worker untied his hands, and he waited at the farm until an ambulance came and took him to a hospital, he said.

The prosecution disagrees with this part of the victim’s story. Esau Vasquez had a handgun, and Ismael Vasquez had a rifle, but Avalos was wounded with a shotgun, said defense attorney Paul Maineri.

“We have medical records that show Mr. Avalos was shot with a shotgun,” he said. “It was a worker who actually shot him.”

The victim was “dizzy and beat up” when the shooting started, but never saw a shotgun, he testified.

As he described the confrontation, he hid his face in his palms and quietly wept, and the judge called a recess. “I don’t believe he had the ability to answer questions at this point in time,” said Judge Michele D. Levine.

Later, after the trial reconvened, Avalos said he had recurring pain in his head and back since the shooting.

The defendant’s could face life in prison plus 38 years in convicted, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

City News Service contributed to this report.