A 29-year-old man was acquitted Wednesday of attempted murder in a near-fatal attack with a skateboard on a man at a Santa Ana park six years ago.
Anthony Edward Rodriguez was also acquitted of attempted manslaughter and jurors, who began deliberating Monday, found untrue sentencing enhancements for attempted premeditated murder and inflicting great bodily injury on the victim. The jury deadlocked 9-3 for acquittal on a felony count of assault with a deadly weapon.
Attorneys will return to court Nov. 28 to discuss the possibility of another trial on the remaining charge.
Co-defendant Adrian Hernandez, 25, pleaded guilty Aug. 14 to assault with a deadly weapon and admitted a sentencing enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury.
They were accused of attacking Fidel Gutierrez Bustos — who died of an overdose in August — on Aug. 29, 2017, prosecutors said. Bustos was 44 when he died.
Police responded to the attack at about 7 p.m. at the skate park at 3000 W. Edinger Ave. Jurors were shown a cell phone video of the conflict between the defendants and Bustos.
When officers arrived, Hernandez told police he hurled a hammer at Bustos, who was on the ground in critical condition with blows to the head, according to Deputy District Attorney Lance Cotton. Bustos sustained skull fractures, a broken jaw, broken teeth, bleeding on the brain and lost his eye, but he survived the attack, Cotton said.
The cell phone video shows the hammer smashing into Bustos’ face, prompting him to collapse, followed by Rodriguez slamming a skateboard on Bustos’ head five times, Cotton said.
Rodriguez’s attorney, Roger Sheaks, told jurors, “This is a self-defense case.”
He added, “What isn’t disputed is Mr. Bustos started this … Mr. Bustos not only started this incident, he attacked someone else at this skate park out of the blue.”
Bustos was “much older” than the usual crowd that frequented the skate park, Sheaks said. “And he was much bigger than anyone at the skate park,” Sheaks added.
Bustos was heard “mumbling” about his discontent with something posted about him on YouTube, Sheaks said.
“It’s apparent he’s under the influence of something,” Sheaks said.
“He attacked that friend of my client,” Sheaks said. “When he grabbed my client’s friend (Hernandez), my client got involved.”
Bustos “got hurt, no doubt about it, but I think that’s the point,” the attorney said. “This was a warning — don’t do this again. … While maybe you wouldn’t have done it that way, legally it was proper.”
Witness Jonathan Mendoza, who was 18 at the time, said he would regularly skate at the park multiple times a week.
Mendoza testified, “I wouldn’t even say it was a fight. It was a fight, but it was more than that — a brutal beating.”
He said he had seen Rodriguez at the skate park before but did not interact with him because he hung out with an older crowd that would drink there, but not skate.
Bustos “had gotten into a fight with another man” earlier, Mendoza testified. “But it was like a friendly fight.”
Mendoza elaborated that after trading blows in a fist fight for a couple of minutes, Bustos made up with his combatant. “They fought each other and then they shook hands after,” Mendoza testified.
Mendoza said it was “20 minutes or so” before Bustos got into the scrum with the defendants.
Bustos was a “bigger kind of guy with tattoos,” Mendoza said. He “started yelling, throwing up his hands trying to start something,” Mendoza testified.
Rodriguez responded “pretty much with the intention to hurt” Bustos, Mendoza said. Rodriguez later “pulled (Bustos’) pants down to his ankles” as he was motionless on the ground, Mendoza testified.
When Bustos collapsed, many of the other parkgoers began calling 911, Mendoza said.
Mendoza also testified that he felt Rodriguez was “under the influence” of some drug.
Under questioning from Sheaks, Mendoza said that he felt sorry for Bustos. Mendoza said he did not move to help Bustos because, “I was afraid of the situation.”
“You were so shook up by this you went off to eat after?” Sheaks asked Mendoza, who replied that he did.