Jun 25, 2008

Prosecutor: Man in bar fight 'executed' victims

Alleged shooter facing life sentence if guilty

By Michael Manekin / Bay Area News Group

A San Jose man being tried in connection with a triple killing at a Redwood City bar in 2006 was drunk and high on methamphetamine when he gunned down two men in a deadly bar fight, firing at least 15 shots toward his victims as they tried to flee the building, a San Mateo County prosecutor said Tuesday.

"He just blasted them," prosecutor Al Giannini told a jury during opening statements of the man's trial. "He was executing these men."

Rolando Fernandez, 28, sat attentively as the prosecutor recounted the April 15, 2006, bar fight that could land him in prison with a life sentence on two counts of first-degree murder.

Fernandez's night out at Headquarters bar, located at 895 Second Ave., was a "stupid" bar fight turned lethal, Giannini said.

Prosecutors accuse Fernandez of killing Humberto Calderon Jr., 18, and Jesus Hernandez, 28, both of Redwood City.

During the melee, he also allegedly wounded another man - 20-year-old Domingo Naranjo, also of Redwood City - with a shot to the neck.

Naranjo, a co-defendant in the murder trial, pleaded no contest two weeks ago to one count of voluntary manslaughter with the use of a firearm in connection with the killing of 38-year-old East Palo Alto resident Hemerenciano Mendoza. He must serve nearly 18 years of prison before he's even eligible for parole, according to prosecutors.

The fatal chaos at Headquarters Bar was something of a group fight between Naranjo's friends and Fernandez's friends, according to both the prosecution and the defense. The skirmish escalated from harsh words to fists and, finally, to guns, according to the attorneys.

The clash began when one of the murder victims - Jesus Hernandez - exchanged words with someone in the bar and called a friend, who brought between five and seven men to the bar, defense attorney Lee Davis said.

A fistfight quickly erupted, and one of the men who came to the bar to defend Hernandez pulled out a gun and began shooting, he added. That man may have been Naranjo himself, the co-defendant in the murder trial who pleaded no contest, according to the prosecution.

Fernandez, the co-defendant currently on trial, witnessed the shooting of two of his friends, according to Davis. One of his friends was killed and another friend was shot in the stomach, the defense attorney said.

The violence prompted him to pull out his own gun to join the fire fight, Davis said.

While the prosecution argued that Fernandez executed two of his alleged victims as they attempted to run away from the bar, Davis argued that he shot while the men while he himself was under attack.