Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 6

A6 ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL Sunday, July 8, 1990 aitlyn Arquette's Death Snarled in Contradictions CONTINUED FROM PAGE A1 Police Clear Boyfriend, But Rumors Persist 1HL i fat i a i i a i r. -v A tit su I released. He was not charged by the grand jury. At the detention, center, Martinez gave several descriptions of the killing. He told one center employee that Miguel Garcia was paid $40,000 to kill Arquette.

He also described a chase between the vehicles. To everyone in his cell area inmates and security officers Martinez proclaimed he wasn't the one who pulled the trigger. The center employees and inmates were called before the grand jury to testify about Martinez's statements. Martinez, who was not called to testify, recanted his statement to police after his release. Martinez claimed he told detectives what they wanted to hear because he was afraid and didn't want to go to jail.

He said he knew nothing about the shooting, except what police told him during the interview. Because of the conflicts in Robert Garcia's testimony, murder charges against Miguel Garcia and Escobedo were dropped in late January. The case was sent to the grand jury after police learned of Martinez's statements to fellow inmates and juvenile center employees. By the time the grand jury indicted the two in February, police no longer knew where to find Escobedo. He had been turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service but was released after it was learned he had filed for U.S.

citizenship. Miguel Garcia was kept in jail on an unrelated burglary charge. He is still being held under $100,000 bond for the burglary and murder charges. Miguel Garcia and Juvenal Escobedo were questioned by detectives on the night of their arrest. Both denied they had taken part in any shooting.

Miguel Garcia said he was with his girlfriend and Escobedo thought he might have been working the night of the shooting. Escobedo said he never allowed weapons in his car. Garcia said he heard about the shooting from his girlfriend. The interviews with both were relatively short. They then were taken to a holding cell where detectives had hidden a tape recorder.

Detective Gallegos read two small portions of a transcript of that tape to the grand jury. He described the tape as difficult to hear. Gallegos told the grand jury he believed the two were unaware of the tape recorder. According to a fuller transcript of the tape, Escobedo and Miguel Garcia con- tinued to deny they had anything to do with the shooting. They also discussed their arrests and their interrogations.

Escobedo told Garcia he was going to have to have someone go through his check stubs to find out if he was working the night Arquette was shot. The transcript identifies the two as first male and second male rather than by name. Early in the conversation, the first male said: "You know what, ese? Marty's ratting us off, ese." The second male responded: "That's why we're here, ese. They had him down-. stairs.

We'll back each other, but we ain't going nowhere, ese." Later, the first male said: "Nah, uh. I mean, if we did something, well, that's a different story. They're trying to pin it down on me 'cause I own a Camaro (inaudible)." They went on to discuss how in a fight they knew what to do and didn't need guns. Still later in the conversation, the second male said: "If I if we would have done it, I'd be telling you right now, shut it up. Just don't rat me out and I won't rat you out, but Then they both said: "We didn't do shit." The two were taken out of the holding cell and booked into the jail.

In January, when initial charges were dropped against Escobedo and Garcia, investigators insisted they had more evidence but did not disclose its nature. Police reports obtained by the Journal indicate two sets of witnesses have given statements implicating Miguel Garcia and Juvenal Escobedo, besides the varied statements of Robert Garcia and Martinez. One set of witnesses told police in February seven months after the shooting that they saw Miguel Garcia go from his car to the kitchen window of his home and pass a rifle to someone inside. They quoted Garcia as saying: "Hide this. We just killed somebody." JOURNAL Kaitlyn Arquette with boyfriend Dung By Mike Gallagher JOURNAL INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER The postcard was sent from Albuquerque to the state Attorney General's Office on Feb.

9, 1990. It read: "Did it ever occur to you that Kait Arquette was murdered as the result of a 'hit' order by the Vietnamese mafia? APD refuses to do anything!" The Attorney General's Office turned the anonymous note over to Albuquerque Police Department homicide detectives Feb. 21. Six days earlier, on orders of the District Attorney's Office to clean up any loose ends in the Kaitlyn Arquette murder case, city police reinterviewed Arquette's Vietnamese boyfriend, Dung Ngoc Nguyen, at police headquarters. Nguyen, 26, had never been a suspect in the homicide as far as detectives were concerned, although Arquette's girlfriends told police the relationship was marked by bitter arguments.

Within a week of her July 1989 murder, Nguyen attempted to commit suicide. Nguyen told detectives he was depressed over Arquette's death and thought everyone blamed him. According to police reports, one friend told officers that Arquette had asked her to move into the apartment because she was throwing Nguyen out. The apartment manager told police shortly after Arquette's death that the couple argued frequently and that she once came to his apartment late at night because she was afraid Nguyen was going to hit her. Arquette also told the apartment manager she was going to force Nguyen to move out.

Police reports show that Arquette's friends also told detectives she had participated in an insurance fraud with Nguyen in a staged car accident during a trip to California. There were three unexplained telephone calls made to California from Arquette's apartment the day after she was shot and Nguyen, witnesses said, was at the hospital with her family. Reports show detectives didn't follow up the information until after the arrests of Miguel Garcia and Juvenal Escobedo. In the February interview with police, Nguyen denied any involvement in an insurance scam. He did admit being in an accident in California while driving a car rented with his driver's license and Arquette's credit card.

Sources say Arquette's bank account showed a $2,000 deposit shortly after she returned from California. He denied that Arquette was going to kick him out of the apartment or that he was a member of a Vietnamese gang. He also said he couldn't remember the last name of one of his friends, known only to police as Ray. He said he was present at the apartment when the telephone calls were made by his Vietnamese friends after Arquette's death. Detectives didn't press the issue that other witnesses placed Nguyen at the hospital and at the Arquette home when the calls were made.

But the police reports indicate Nguyen's friends had a different story. Ray Padilla worked with Nguyen at a manufacturing plant in Albuquerque. Padilla was with Nguyen when he first met Kaitlyn Arquette at the Frontier Restaurant about a year before her death. It was Padilla who talked to police about the alleged California insurance scam. An excerpt from the report: "Dung's Dennis Martinez i v.

i iMtiwuiiMt m-ii ii it ar iiij Juvenal There was little apparent progress in the case for six months until a Crime Stoppers tipster identified four suspects as the killers. On Jan. 17, 1990, detectives arrested the four identified in the Crime Stoppers call. Two of the suspects gave police statements identifying Juvenal Escobedo, 21, and Miguel Garcia, 18, as the two mainly responsible for the shooting. Robert Garcia, who is no relation to Miguel, told police he watched Miguel Garcia fire three shots from a revolver at a car.

Police obtained a similar statement from Dennis "Marty" Martinez. Police had to back off Garcia's statement when they learned he was in the Youth Diagnostic Center, used for short-term evaluation of prisoners, the night of the killing. Martinez has since recanted. Neither is charged in the shooting. The statements given to police and other officials by Garcia and Martinez are often inconsistent and contradictory, reports show.

The two did not testify before the grand jury that indicted Miguel Garcia and Escobedo, also known as Jose Hernandez. Garcia remains in jail, but Escobedo is a fugitive. reports obtained and reviewed by the Journal don't reveal any independent eyewitnesses to the shooting and no scientific evidence linking Garcia and Escobedo to the killing. The reports also show detectives didn't consider Arquette's live-in boyfriend, Dung Ngoc Nguyen, to be a suspect. The reports do show police were told the couple's relationship was stormy, with Arquette having threatened to throw him out of their apartment, and one person told officers that Nguyen had involved her in an alleged insurance fraud.

Police based the case against Garcia and Escobedo on testimony. The case file shows the testimony is often contradictory and in some cases disproved. The eyewitness account given by Robert Garcia was disproved when police learned Garcia was in the Youth Diagnostic Center the night of the killing. The second purported eyewitness, Martinez, first gave several versions of the shooting to police and employees of the Juvenile Detention Center. He later recanted his statements.

Escobedo and Miguel Garcia denied any involvement when interrogated by detectives. Later that evening, they were put into the same holding cell where they were secretly taped in a conversation in which they said they were innocent. Testimony of other witnesses is contradicted or called into question by information in police files. The first break came a month after Arquette was shot. Detective Steve Galle-gos interviewed a local truck driver, who had seen something he thought would interest police.

The truck driver gave officers information used in arrest-and-search warrant affidavits filed by police several months later. The driver told police he was stopped at a red light at the intersection of Broadway and Lomas between 9:30 and 10:00 on a Sunday night in July when he saw what looked like a chase. As the truck driver turned west on Lomas, he was passed by two cars on his left. Both were traveling fast and made U-turns at the railroad tracks that cross Lomas. The truck driver described the first car that passed him as a "blue or dark" color vehicle that looked like a Ford Tempo.

The witness said he thought the car was driven by a woman. Detective Gallegos noted in his report that Arquette was driving a dark red Tempo. The truck driver described the car in pursuit as a 1970s model Camaro or Firebird, gold or bronze in color, with gray primer spots on the right front fender. He said the car had at least two, or possibly three, people in it. The truck driver also told police that a man in the pursuing car yelled "bitch" loud enough for him to hear.

A month later, the witness was hypnotized and recounted the story he had told police earlier with a few additional details. But the truck driver's statements appear much stronger in the affidavits filed during the arrests of Escobedo, Martinez, Robert Garcia and Miguel Garcia. In his affidavit, detective Gallegos swore the truck driver said he saw Kaitlyn Arquette's car chased by a brown Camaro rather than a "gold or bronze Camaro or Firebird." The affidavit didn't note that the witness" placed the incident between 9:30 and 10 p.m. when Arquette supposedly was having ice cream near Old Town. The reports also show the truck driver gave police a a partial license plate number for the Camaro or Firebird.

The driver was not sure if-the numbers were in the right 'order. The partial plate number QU-141 was noted by Gallegos in his reports a month after Escobedo and the others were arrested. Several months before the shooting, Escobedo was arrested for drunken driving in Socorro driving a Camaro with a license plate JXJ-703. The day after the shooting, Escobedo received a ticket while driving a Camaro through San Ysidro. According to the ticket issued Escobedo, the license plate was JXJ-703.

Officers during the arrests seized a Camaro that belonged to Escobedo at the time Arquette was shot. It had been painted maroon and sold. The car was returned to the man who bought it, but police kept the fender and other parts of the car. In November, police received the first of Crime Stoppers tips identifying Miguel Garcia and Juvenal Escobedo as suspects in Arquette's murder. The'ipsters all said theftwo had been heard Wagging about the killing.

Ngoc Nguyen. accident involving Nguyen. Everyone involved in the accident, which police said was Nguyen's fault, complained of head and neck pains. The car rental company declined comment, but sources told the Journal that a number of insurance claims were filed. According to police reports the day Arquette was killed, Nguyen said he was with two friends, An Le and Khanh Pham.

He said they were at the Monte Vista Fire Station restaurant from 8 to 10 p.m., and Pham drove Nguyen home, where he was awakened by detectives the next morning. That morning, police gave Nguyen a primer residue test to determine if he had fired a gun recently. The results of the test were negative. Police also confiscated a note: "Hon, where are you? I know you're still mad I'm so sorry OK! I miss you today. I went to mom's house to return these books.

I'll see ya. Love." Nguyen said the note, unsigned and undated, was from Kaitlyn. There is no indication from reports that detectives interviewed Pham after Arquette's death. He declined to be interviewed after Nguyen attempted suicide. An Le was interviewed after Nguyen attempted suicide and told police he didn't know about an insurance scam in California.

He told police he was aware the couple had argued, but was not aware of any serious problems between them. Under often intense questioning, Robert Garcia and Martinez said Miguel Garcia fired a revolver at the car driven by Arquette. Of the guns found in a search of Miguel Garcia's home, only one was a revolver. Police experts found it didn't fire safely or reliably in the condition it was found on the night of the arrests. Neither Martinez nor Robert Garcia seemed able to describe the driver of the car they said Miguel Garcia shot at.

It is unclear from the transcripts of interrogations whether detectives or witnesses were the first to describe her car as being red. At one point during the questioning, Martinez said it was a red truck. After confirming that Robert Garcia was in the custody of juvenile authorities on the night of the shooting, police questioned him again. He was warned that his credibility was not good. In response to questions, Garcia said he was told about the shooting by Martinez sometime after his release from the Diagnostic Center.

Garcia said they were at a park with two teen-agers when Martinez discussed the shooting. Garcia explained that he was scared during his first interrogation and told police what he thought they wanted him to say. His father, Martin Tapia, said his son had gotten the Arquette shooting confused with another incident in May when the same group fired a gun at a house. Police interviewed the two 13-year-old boys who Garcia said were present during the conversation at the park. Both denied hearing the conversation or being at the park with Martinez and Garcia.

Police released Garcia, but booked Martinez in the Bernalillo County Detention Center in connection with Arquette's death. Martinez was later transferred to the Juvenile Detention Center and eventually California friends used to rent cars, then intentionally get into accidents with other people. Dung told Ray how the scam worked. A car was rented. The car was intentionally run into another car and driver of the rental car would get out and run, leaving the scene of the accident.

The people in the second car then sued the insurance company and were paid. The people in the second car then shared the money with the car renter. "Ray advised that during the summer of 1988 (after 7-04-88), three Vietnamese males came to Albuquerque in a nice large black car. They wore expensive clothes. Dung (Nguyen) and An (a friend) went to California with them.

Three or four days later Dung returned alone with a lot of money. He bought himself a lot of new clothes." According to the report of the police interview with Padilla, Nguyen and Padilla used cocaine for a time when they worked together. Padilla told police Arquette didn't use drugs, and said Arquette would call him after she and Dung argued. "They argued about money, the way he treated her and his wanting to move to California," according to the report. Padilla also told police Nguyen's friends in California were cocaine dealers.

Albuquerque detectives contacted police in Southern California. Police in Westminster near Los Angeles found a report of an Aug. 15, 1988, Miguel Garcia But Robert Garcia became confused when officers took him to the crime scene. He didn't show police the right intersection. His mother already had suggested to police that her son was in the Youth Diagnostic Center when Arquette was killed.

It turned out she was right. By the end of the evening of Jan. 17, detectives had obtained a statement from Martinez implicating Miguel Garcia and Escobedo. His description of the events was hazy. He claimed he was drunk at the time and only heard the shots.

He also placed Robert Garcia in the back seat during the shooting. Both Robert Garcia and Martinez said there was no chase, and both were confused about the direction the cars were heading at the time of the shooting. Garcia said the Camaro was heading north on Broadway. Martinez said the car was on Lomas traveling uphill toward the West Mesa. A car would have to have been traveling east toward the Sandias to be going uphill where Arquette was shot.

jr 1 fmm il Escobedo After reviewing photographs, one of the witnesses also said another man, Eric Tapia, was in the car. Tapia was interviewed by police and denied any knowledge of the shooting. He later passed a lie detector test, taken at the request of detectives. The second set of witnesses includes teen-agers who said Miguel Garcia bragged about the shooting. Recounting a conversation to police, the teens quoted Garcia as saying: "You remember that girl that died on the street? I'm the one that killed her." But an older sister of the teens told police she disregarded the conversation when her younger brothers told her about it because they were "little smart mouths." Another girl told police she heard Juvenal Escobedo bragging about the killing at one of the Summerfest events at the Civic Plaza.

No trial date has been set for Miguel Garcia. While Miguel Garcia is in jail, Escobedo is a fugitive wanted for murder. Garcia's attorneys said they expect to be back in court asking for police records that have not been released. "We've been to court three times already to get the reports," Riggs said. "We believe they haven't turned everything over at this late date and we're going to get the court to force them to release it." On Jan.

11, 1990, Gallegos met with an informant who told him Escobedo drove the car and Miguel Garcia fired the shots. The informant told Gallegos that Robert Garcia might have information. On Jan. 16 and 17, Gallegos and Detective A.V. Romero made arrangements to meet with Robert Garcia through his juvenile probation officer.

At 3 p.m. on the 17th, the detectives took Garcia and his mother downtown to police headquarters. At first, Garcia denied knowing anything about the shooting. But during a lengthy interrogation, he admitted being present in the car when Miguel Garcia fired three shots from a revolver at Arquette's car on a dare from Escobedo. That night, based on the Crime Stoppers tips and the statements from the.

truck driver and Robert Garcia, Gallegos obtained warrants for Juvenal Escobedo, Miguel Garcia and Dennis "Marty" Martinez. The three were arrested, and it appeared detectives had solved the mystery..