A 67-year-old man extradited from Mexico earlier this year to stand trial was acquitted Friday of murder for the April 1983 death of a man.
Jurors deliberated about 1 1/2 days before returning their verdict in the case of Juan Jesus Flores, who was charged in the April 1983 death of Robert Garver.
Prosecutors alleged earlier this year that Garver tried to stop Flores from fleeing from Roxbury Park in Beverly Hills in his vehicle with Flores’ 2- year-old daughter on April 3, 1983. Garver died three days later as a result of his injuries.
Defense attorney Roger Jon Diamond countered that the law in place in California in 1983 allowed either parent legal authority to take a child if no court order was in place.
“There was no issue of kidnapping a child,” Diamond said of the case law in effect at the time.
Diamond said his client had not seen the girl for about 17 months while he was in prison on a federal tax evasion case, and arranged a meeting with his estranged wife to see the girl for an Easter picnic.
Garver — a friend of Flores’ estranged wife — was killed after jumping on the hood of Flores’ rented car and then falling to the ground, Diamond said.
“His only goal was to get free of this activity,” Diamond said, noting that another friend of Flores’ estranged wife was chasing him in a van.
Flores turned himself into Beverly Hills police later that day and eventually fled to his native Mexico while the case against him was pending.
Diamond called the acquittal “total vindication” for his client, whom he said is expected to return to Mexico following his release from jail.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the verdict.
— City News Service