ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Tuesday, the state wrapped up its case, and Wednesday, jurors heard some witnesses in the defense’s case regarding a Liberal man accused of two deaths in 2019.
Prosecuting attorney Russell Hasenbank and defense attorney Luci Douglass had heard from witnesses since Monday, Oct. 27, in Seward County District Court for Pablo Ramon Ramirez.
According to an amended complaint obtained from District Court clerks, Ramon Ramirez was initially being tried on 16 charges, including two counts of first degree murder in the deaths of Timothy J. Martin and Erick Gabriel Salas in rural Seward County.
After the state’s case closed Tuesday, however, Douglass, along with Judge Clint Peterson, reduced the charges to 12, with one count each of recruiting criminal street gang members, conspiracy to commit recruit criminal street gang membership and criminal damage to property among the dismissed counts.
Hasenbank and Douglass called several of the same witnesses, including agents from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation who had conducted search warrants and interviews with witnesses.
The complaint, along with testimony, said the alleged double homicide occurred April 2, 2019, the birthday of Ralph Thomas Salas Jr., Junior Sanchez and/or Trung Phan conspired to kill Martin and Erick Salas.
Phan was questioned extensively in regards to his involvement with the case. Under questioning from Hasenbank, he said his wife, Christine Phan, had a relationship with Erick at one time, but that relationship had become estranged in 2018.
Trung likewise said Martin was a close friend of the family, and he said he saw Ralph was at his house around 12:30 a.m. the morning of April 2, 2019.
Trung said Ramon Ramirez was with Ralph, and they woke him up to celebrate Ralph’s birthday. He likewise testified the two grabbed gloves and masks from his room.
Somehow in the midst of riding with Ramon Ramirez and Ralph, Trung said plans for a robbery were discussed, which testimony revealed was done prior to the alleged murders.
Trung said he also told investigators, the group traveled to the home of Erick and Martin, where Trung said Ramon Ramirez and Ralph tried to make him shoot Martin. He added he told investigators he had seen Martin running out of the house and waved him over to the truck, and Ralph had told him to shoot Martin.
Trung later said later that morning, Ramon Ramirez and Ralph picked him up, and he said Ralph seemed to be energetic. In Douglass’s cross examination, he said he knew Eric and Martin from a drug history with them, one of which was methamphetamine.
Martin’s body was found west of Liberal just north of U.S. Highway 54 not long after April 2, 2019, according to testimony from law enforcement.
In a redirect, Hasenbank discovered Trung had little, if any, knowledge of where the body was, and investigators had told Trung where the body was. However, he did know where Erick’s body was, as that body was also later discovered.
Hasenbank also found inconsistencies in interviews he did with law enforcement as he initially claimed involvement in the case, but later denied it. Trung said in interviews and in testimony, he believed he was being framed.
Tuesday, KBI Senior Special Agent Clint Brock said he was initially contacted by his supervisor to respond to Liberal for bodies found near the stateline.
Brock was one of the agents who interviewed Trung and did so several times. He said in one interview, Trung did say he was going to be forced to kill Timothy by Ralph. Brock said Trung’s story, throughout the interviews, did not change about the vehicles involved, the firearms, gloves and being picked up prior to the incident.
Likewise, Brock said all of Trung’s interviews stopped when Martin was killed, and he had never mentioned a location. Jurors then viewed a video of one of the interviews in which Trung took the agent along the path of events that night.
Under cross examination, Brock said collective investigations led to the belief Ralph was one of the most likely suspects. Brock also told Trung, according to testimony, the interviews would be his last time to talk to them. Trung told Brock, however, he would wait for data to come back from investigations into cell phone records. Brock also said Trung did not think Ralph and Ramon Ramirez were involved.
Following the close of the state’s case, Douglass asked for acquittal of many of the charges because she felt Hasenbank had not presented sufficient evidence. She also said neither of the autopsies showed Martin and Erick had been shot or tied up, which was inconsistent with prior testimony.
Douglass also argued testimonies had Ramon Ramirez in different places at different times the night of the alleged homicide. Peterson, however, kept 12 of the counts in place.
The defense began its case Wednesday morning, and Douglass brought former Seward County Sheriff’s Deputy Jared Wagenseller to the stand, along with KBI Special Agents Dustin Snodgrass and Jason LaRue.
The testimony of Wagenseller and Snodgrass revealed little, but both Douglass and Hasenbank spent extensive time with LaRue, who said Ralph and Junior Sanchez were involved, according to an interview the agent had done with witness Ivan Rodriguez.
LaRue said Rodriguez had told him Ralph, Roman Ramirez and Sanchez had gone to Erick’s house to pull the robbery, but he did not know why the robbery was being done, nor did he know Trung’s involvement.
Rodriguez, however, according to LaRue, did say Trung had been to the trailer house and told Ralph about what was in the trailer, and this is when plans were made for a robbery.
LaRue likewise said Rodriguez told him Roman Ramirez said he shot Erick in the stomach resulting in killing him, but later said he was not the one who killed Erick.
Rodriguez also had told LaRue, according to the testimony, Sanchez said Erick was shot in the head and had been pistol whipped before Martin showed up.
Rodriguez, LaRue said, said some weed and around $1,000 in cash were taken from the trailer, and when Martin realized what was happening, he started running away.
Rodriguez’s story also contends someone tripped Martin, tied him up, took him to the country and killed him. He also said Ramon Ramirez said Sanchez shot Martin in the vehicle, but that was accidental.
Brock would return to the stand to answer questions about two interviews with Alexis Gomez, the former girlfriend or wife of Ralph. Jurors watched one of the videos Wednesday afternoon, and Gomez talked about how Ralph was involved in gang crime, as were others including Ramon Ramirez.
In the interview, Brock revealed Gomez had not spent the night of the incident with Ralph as she had earlier told him, and Gomez said Ralph, Roman Ramirez and Sanchez had gone out to do something stupid that night.
Gomez, in the interview, did say the group went to scope out the trailer just days before the alleged homicide.
Douglass said she does expect to wind up her case today prior to handing the case over to jurors.
