Jury begins delivering fate of Union City slaying suspect

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Feb 26, 2008 | by Ben Aguirre Jr

HAYWARD -- Jurors this morning began deliberating the fate of a Los Angeles man charged with killing a Union City flea market vendor during a botched robbery more than three years ago.

The panel spent almost 75 minutes this morning listening to arguments from both attorneys, and jurors have since retired to the deliberation room to decide if defendant Jose Napolean Beteta is guilty of killing 48-year-old Mohammed Sharif on Dec. 5, 2004, in Union City.

Beteta is one of two men initially charged with killing Sharif, a video game and electronics flea market vendor who was shot three times less than a mile from his Union City home. Prosecutors allege that Beteta, former co-defendant Sanders Rivera and another man followed Sharif home from the Berryessa Flea Market in San Jose, and then killed him during a robbery.

Rivera was set to face trial with Beteta but accepted a plea agreement in exchange for his testimony. At trial, he told jurors that Beteta was the mastermind of the robbery and the gunman.

In closing arguments, defense attorney Mark Smallen attacked Rivera's credibility as a witness and told the panel that Rivera was the gunman and that he cut a deal to save himself.

Furthermore, Smallen argued that it was not a robbery, rather the men were having a disagreement about a prior confrontation and that Beteta simply was trying to get money that Sharif owed him.

But prosecutor Butch Ford told jurors that the evidence does not support Smallen's claims.

Ford went on to say that he believes Beteta was the shooter, and that both he and Rivera would have been found guilty of murder under California's felony-murder rule. That rule states that a defendant is guilty of murder if he was an active participant in certain violent crimes -- including murder -- that result in the death of the victim.

"Who the shooter is doesn't really matter," Ford said this morning. "If we tried both, they'd be guilty of first-degree murder under the felony-murder rule."

Ford said he could not say exactly why Rivera was offered a plea deal, but alluded to the fact that Beteta may have tried to turn the tables and label him the shooter.

The prosecutor concluded his argument by stating that Rivera was just another piece of the puzzle and that his testimony helped everyone understand why Sharif was killed.

Ford said Smallen was trying to focus the jury's attention on missing pieces of the puzzle to help build a case of reasonable doubt.

"Evidence I present are like pieces to a puzzle. Every trial I have a missing piece, but that doesn't mean you don't know what the picture is," he said.