One conviction, one acquittal in Toste murder trial

<p>Sonoma County jurors Friday convicted one man of second-degree murder and acquitted another in the 2006 slaying of a man in a downtown Santa Rosa parking garage.</p><p>After about two days of deliberation, jurors found Joseph Kenneth Lopez Jr., 21, guilty of shooting Matthew Toste, a 32-year-old construction worker, during a midnight confrontation that erupted over lewd comments made to Toste's date and another woman.</p><p>Co-defendant Paul Louis Whiterock, 30, who also was charged with murder for allegedly helping Lopez get away, was cleared of all charges. He was released from county jail at about 4 p.m. after more than 22 months awaiting trial.</p><p>The slaying had sparked widespread community concern among people who believed it represented a spread of violent gang activity into the downtown center. The jury, however, rejected the criminal count that accused the pair of acting as part of street gang.</p><p>Whiterock beamed at the verdict and his mother and sister hugged each other outside the packed courtroom. Lopez's family huddled in the hallway in gloomy silence.</p><p>“I'm so relieved,” said Kristine Burk, Whiterock's lawyer. “They did the right thing.”</p><p>Members of the nine-woman, three-man jury declined to discuss the case as filed out of courthouse in pouring rain. One woman juror said simply, “It was difficult.”</p><p>The Toste family also wouldn't comment, citing an ongoing gag order from Judge Lawrence Antolini that will expire after Lopez is sentenced on April 29.</p><p>Lopez faces 15-years-to-life in prison for the murder conviction and an additional 25-to-life for a gun enhancement. Jurors found him guilty of active participation in a street gang but exonerated him on an allegation he murdered Toste for the benefit of a gang.</p><p>Both men were charged in the Dec. 3, 2006 shooting inside the Seventh Street parking garage. Toste, his date KC Griffin and his cousin Kim Barragan were walking from their car to a nightclub when they were confronted by a group of men that witnesses said included Lopez and Whiterock.</p><p>One of the men, Joseph Lopez Sr., 41, allegedly grabbed Barragan's buttocks and Toste rushed to her defense. The elder Lopez tried to punch Toste and missed and Toste swung back, knocking him unconscious.</p><p>His son, Lopez Jr., then 18, pulled a .32 caliber pistol and fired at Toste, hitting him twice in the chest from about a foot away. One bullet ripped through his heart. Toste died within minutes.</p><p>He left behind a young son, who is being raised by relatives near Sacramento.</p><p>Lopez Jr. and Whiterock were arrested the next day but released when the district attorney didn't file charges. The gun was never found. The case eventually was presented to a criminal grand jury, which handed down first-degree murder indictments for five men in summer 2008.</p><p>The former co-defendants, Lopez Sr., Nicholas Mejia, 31, Raul Lopez-Granados, 22, pleaded guilty to lesser gang charges in January. Their sentences are pending.</p><p>The investigation was plagued by witnesses' confused and conflicting identifications of the suspects and conflicting accounts of what happened. Defense attorneys sought to have the case dismissed for lack of evidence and for what they contended were efforts to mislead the grand jury.</p><p>The district attorney assigned the case to two of its chief deputies, Spencer Brady and Rob LaForge. They argued in court that the killing was an intentional and malicious act that arose when Toste dared to confront gang members, who had been at a house party before heading downtown. In his closing, Brady said Toste's public challenge showed disrespect to the gang and Lopez responded with lethal force.</p><p>However, Brady said a finding of second-degree murder might be appropriate if the jury believed the slaying was not premeditated. </p><p>Lopez Jr.'s lawyer, George Boisseau, contended the shooting was justifiable because the younger man thought Toste shot his father. He asked jurors to consider Lopez Jr.'s intoxication and violent upbringing. Ultimately, he said the killing was about protecting family, not furthering the interests of a gang. The jury agreed but found Lopez guilty of a separate count of active gang participation. </p><p>Whiterock's attorney, Burk, said her client wasn't connected to the initial confrontation, citing a witness who put him on the other side of the garage at the time. Her cross-examination of Barragan, who misidentified the shooter and other defendants, cast further doubt on Whiterock's involvement.</p><p>During deliberations, jurors asked to hear testimony from witnesses Damon Gault and Chris Barragan, Kim Barragan's husband. Prosecutors asserted that the eyewitness testimony from Gault, a 41-year-old electrical contractor who was in his parked car near the shooting, proved that Lopez murdered Toste. Defense attorneys argued that Barragan's testimony was key to showing Whiterock was not an accessory.</p><p>As the verdicts were read, Whiterock smiled broadly and turned to the audience to face his family. The judge told Whiterock he could be released from custody and thanked jurors.</p><p>Outside, his mother, Paula Whiterock, cheered the verdict.</p><p>“I'm so glad that his innocence was finally proven,” she said. “Thank God. It's by his grace."</p>