Prosecutors played a surveillance video Friday that they believe puts the suspect in a downtown Santa Rosa murder at the scene of the crime.
Video from the state building on D Street appears to show a silver, Toyota Sienna minivan like the one owned by Ryan Dietz, 30, driving by the night of June 28, about a half-hour before his romantic rival was slain a block away.
Det. Bryan Reynolds testified at Dietz's preliminary hearing that the minivan matched one seized the next day when Dietz was arrested at work.
To be sure, Reynolds said he drove Dietz's 2004 Toyota Sienna in front of the same cameras a few weeks later and compared the images.
"There's no difference," Reynolds testified.
Another camera at First Republic Bank on the corner Third and D streets also captured what looked like the van headed south on D Street at about 11:25 p.m., Reynolds said.
Prosecutors believe it made a U-turn and parked northbound on D Street, across the street from where the killing occurred.
"It appeared consistent with the vehicle I knew to be driven by Mr. Dietz," Reynolds said.
Dietz is charged with killing Jack Romero, 33, an ex-Sonoma County correctional deputy who was having an affair with the mother of Dietz's three children, Garicka Rush, also 33.
Prosecutors believe Dietz confronted Romero outside Third Street Aleworks - where he had been drinking with Rush - and shot him dead.
No one witnessed the slaying, but two people fixing a flat tire nearby testified they heard shots and ran over in time to see a man get into a parked minivan.
The videos could corroborate witness accounts in a case built solely on circumstantial evidence.
Also discussed Friday was the other key piece - ammunition boxes prosecutors said were discarded by Rush the next day at Dietz's request.
Det. Ryan Corcoran testified they contained 40-caliber bullets - the same caliber other sources said were used in the slaying.
Corcoran testified only one bullet was recovered from Romero's body during the autopsy. He said Romero was shot once in the head, once in the neck and eight times in the back or buttocks.
Prosecutor Bud McMahon argued at the close of the three-day hearing that Dietz had the motive, means and the opportunity to kill Romero.
He asked Judge Dana Simonds to find there was sufficient evidence for the charges. Simonds will make her ruling Monday morning.
"This is clearly a circumstantial case, your honor," McMahon said. "We're aware of that. Perhaps that's what makes it so compelling."
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