Toste suspect declares he's innocent victim

One of the five men accused of murdering Matthew Toste in a downtown Santa Rosa parking garage 18 months ago said Tuesday he should be considered another victim in the case, not a suspect.

Nicholas “Nico” Mejia, 30, said in a phone call from the Sonoma County Jail that he was “not connected at all” to the slaying and he was shot three times during the incident.

“The only thing I’m guilty of is not seeing what happened,” he said during the six-minute interview.

Mejia was arraigned Monday along with Joseph Kenneth Lopez Jr., 19, his father Joseph Kenneth Lopez, Sr., 39, his cousin Raul Lopez-Granados, 20, and Paul Whiterock, 28, in the Dec. 3, 2006 murder of Toste in the Seventh Street parking structure.

He said he contacted The Press Democrat because he believes he has been unfairly lumped in with the other four defendants.

Investigators contend all five men confronted Toste and the three others he was with, harassing the two women. A verbal confrontation became physical and shots rang out, police said.

A grand jury indicted Mejia and the others on June 5 after prosecutors presented several weeks of evidence in the high-profile slaying. The men, who haven’t entered pleas, are due back in court June 30.

According to the indictment, all five men “talked about getting retaliation for a beating Nico Mejia was involved in.” The indictment didn’t clarify the allegation, although police earlier said the men were waiting for people they knew to leave the Seven Ultra Lounge across the street.

Mejia said he was an innocent party in the gunfire. He said he “doesn’t really know” the other defendants but is familiar with some of the Lopez cousins.

“They’re hiding a bunch of stuff,” he said of investigators. “They knew I had nothing to do with it. If they had (evidence), they would have arrested me back then.”

Mejia, who also has a felony methamphetamine possession case pending and is on probation for a misdemeanor assault case, said he drove alone to the parking garage and was walking down a ramp toward the club when he saw a confrontation involving Toste and others.

“I wasn’t even close range, probably like a good 15, 20 feet,” he said. “I wasn’t even close enough to hear what the argument was about.”

Mejia said he then heard gunfire.

“All I heard was the shots and that was it,” he said. “I’m trying to hide, you know. I almost lost my leg out there.”

Police said at the time that two other men were wounded by gunfire, but they refused to identify them or describe their involvement. Police said they interviewed the men shortly after the shooting.

Lopez Jr. and Whiterock were arrested within hours of Toste’s killing, but prosecutors declined to file charges, saying there wasn’t enough evidence.

Mejia said he was shot three times in the back of the right leg, all around the knee.

“I got shot three times in the back of the leg, walking away,” Mejia said.

“I’m a victim, too,” he said. “I didn’t even come with them. I came by myself in my own car. I was going to the club, but everybody goes to the club. It’s a small town.”

Santa Rosa Police homicide Sgt. Paul Henry confirmed Tuesday that Mejia was one of two defendants who were wounded by gunfire and that no one in the Toste party was armed.

The indictment accuses Lopez Jr. of firing the shots that killed Toste.

Henry declined to directly challenge or confirm most of what Mejia said, saying he didn’t want to damage the case as it heads toward trial.

Mejia said he was interviewed in the hospital, where police swabbed his hands in a test for gunshot residue. He also said police examined his car and apparently found nothing incriminating.

“I was never even being charged with this until this grand jury stuff came up,” he said. “I’m seeing all this stuff and they’re making me look guilty. They checked me for gun residue at the hospital, and there was none of that.”

Henry said Mejia’s explanations don’t square with evidence detectives have gathered.

“It sounds like the information he’s providing you is contrary to the information we’re working with,” he said, declining to be more specific. “It will come out at some point, if this case ever goes to trial. Or it will come out as not based in fact, if he pleads guilty.”

The indictment also accuses Lopez Jr., Lopez-Granados and Mejia of attempted murder in a Nov. 16, 2006, shooting. Mejia said he wasn’t involved in, and was never questioned about, that case.

“They’re trying to make it look like something it’s not,” he said. “It makes me look like a monster.”

You can reach Staff Writer L.A. Carter at 568-5312 and lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com.