‘They were running away’: Yolo judge issues ruling in West Sacramento park murder
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Judge ordered Adrek Miramontes to stand trial accused of murder.
- Prosecutors allege Miramontes fired at teens fleeing a drug deal without payment.
- Police say Miramontes dismantled the gun and discarded weapon parts in a local river.
A Yolo Superior Court judge on Friday ordered a man to stand trial charged with murder in the shooting of a 16-year-old boy killed after a marijuana drug deal went wrong at a West Sacramento park.
Adrek Isaac Miramontes, 19, is accused of firing a gun on April 30 and killing Adrian Carter at Summerfield Park. The murder charge includes enhancements that allege Miramontes committed a premeditated murder, used a gun in the crime and fired that weapon from inside a vehicle, according to the criminal complaint filed by the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors also charged Miramontes with two counts of attempted murder in connection with the Summerfield Park shooting. The victims listed in those charges are identified as M.S. and A.J. in the complaint. The attempted murder charges include enhancements that also allege Miramontes acted with premeditation and used a gun in the crimes.
Deputy District Attorney Nicholas Spatola has told the judge that two other people, who are the attempted murder victims listed in the criminal complaint, were with Carter at the park when the shooting occurred.
At Miramontes’ May 9 arraignment, the prosecutor said those surviving victims identified him as the homicide suspect based on his tattoos and a police photo lineup.
Miramontes’ preliminary hearing to determine whether he should stand trial began Wednesday afternoon, with West Sacramento police investigators testifying about the botched marijuana drug deal at the park. Only police investigators were called to testify in the hearing about evidence collected and statement from witnesses, which is common for a preliminary hearing.
The deadly shooting was reported shortly before 2 p.m. April 30 at Summerfield Park, 2950 Linden Road, just west of Jefferson Boulevard in West Sacramento.
Carter and two other teens met at the park with a drug dealer, later identified as Miramontes, who was going to sell marijuana to the three young men. The investigators told the judge that one of the teens, M.S., had planned to steal the marijuana from the dealer and grabbed a bag of the drugs before running as shots were fired.
Carter was the only one of the three who was struck by gunfire. The Sacramento teen was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. He was formerly a student in the Washington Unified School District.
On Friday afternoon, Spatola dropped the attempted murder charge for victim A.J.. The prosecutor said there was insufficient evidence to support that charge.
In his closing argument, Spatola said Miramontes fired three gunshots in the park that afternoon intending to kill 16-year-old M.S., who grabbed a bag of marijuana from the dealer’s vehicle without paying for it. The prosecutor said Miramontes missed M.S. and shot Carter instead, hitting him with a bullet that entered the back of his head and exited through his forehead.
The three teens ran from Miramontes’ vehicle before the gun was used. Spatola said Miramontes fired his gun into a park in “broad daylight” with others there, including a bystander with his grandchildren.
“They were running away from Mr. Miramontes,” Spatola said about Carter and the two other teens. “They were running after grabbing the bag (of marijuana).”
Mario Andrews, Miramontes’ attorney, said the prosecution did not present any evidence or testimony that shows his client shot at or intended to kill anyone. The defense attorney said his client should face a second-degree murder charge, and he asked the judge to consider reducing that charge to voluntary manslaughter based on the circumstances that led to the shooting.
“There was zero evidence that the gun was aimed at anyone,” Andrews argued.
The defendant did not testify during the preliminary hearing. The defense attorney, however, called back to the witness stand West Sacramento Police Detective Ricardo Ramirez to testify about what Miramontes told him during a June 26 interview at the Sheriff’s Office.
Miramontes requested the interview through his attorney, with an agreement from the District Attorney’s Office. His defense attorney was present during the interview.
On Friday, Ramirez testified that Miramontes had exchanged text messages with M.S. to arrange the marijuana drug deal, including the location and price and quantity of the marijuana. Miramontes didn’t know M.S., they arranged the drug deal on the encrypted social media app Telegram and agreed the buyer would pay for the drugs with an online CashApp transaction.
Miramontes told Ramirez he was concerned when he arrived at the park, because the CashApp transaction had not gone through and the three teens were black hooded-sweatshirts on a warm day as they approached his car.
The defendant also told the police detective he saw Carter holding a pocket knife in his left hand, and A.J. had his hands in a “fanny pack” he was wearing. Ramirez testified that Miramontes said M.S. reached into the parked car through an open front passenger window and grabbed Miramontes’ right forearm.
In his closing argument, the defense attorney said Miramontes acted in “imperfect self-defense” that afternoon at the park.
“He’s scared,” Andrews told the judge. “All of these things are going through his mind.”
The prosecutor argued that statements about M.S. grabbing Miramontes’ forearm and Carter holding a knife came from the defendant after he and his attorney had access to the prosecution’s discovery evidence. He said that evidence included details about investigators finding a folded-closed pocket knife in Carter’s pocket.
“If he was so concerned and afraid, he could’ve drove off after he got punked by these three teens,” Spatola said in court.
He told the judge that Carter was found severely wounded on the grass at the park near a small tree about 80 feet away from where Miramontes was inside his vehicle.
The police detective testified that Miramontes went home after the shooting and had difficulty taking apart the gun. Miramontes told Ramirez in the June interview that he then watched a YouTube video on how to dismantle the weapon and threw the gun parts and three shell casings into a local river. Investigators never found the gun used in the park shooting.
After hearing the attorneys’ arguments, Judge Daniel Wolk ordered Miramontes to stand trial on the first-degree murder charge in Carter’s death and the attempted murder charge for M.S.
Wolk scheduled Miramontes to return to court Oct. 29 for arraignment on his charges before the court can decide when to schedule his trial. He remains in custody at the Yolo County Jail.
