Suspect Denies Slaying

Taking the stand in his own defense Wednesday, a 19-year-old Santa Paula man facing murder charges denied fatally shooting a woman and wounding her friend outside a party two years ago and instead blamed the shooting on two unidentified men.

Defendant Isaac Lara told jurors he heard an argument, followed by gunshots, on the street outside a house in Santa Paula where the party was held. When he went to investigate, Lara said, he found 21-year-old Joanna Orozco shot in the chest.

“It didn’t seem real,” Lara testified, telling jurors he tried to get Orozco medical attention. “No one was helping her. They were just standing there.”

But prosecutors contend that Lara, an alleged Santa Paula gang member who lost his older brother to gang violence in 1992, shot Orozco and her friend, Shane Longoria, after confronting them at the party.

According to authorities, Orozco and Longoria, then 22, went to pick up an acquaintance at the party on Nov. 7, 2000, and got into a brief argument with Lara.

Lara allegedly followed Orozco and Longoria outside and began shooting. Lara, who was 17 at the time, is charged with murder and attempted murder.

On the stand for several hours Wednesday, Lara testified he had been drinking beer and taking drugs before the shooting and could not recall specific details.

But he denied getting into an argument with Orozco and Longoria.

Lara did admit asking the pair where they were from, but rejected prosecutors’ suggestions the remark was a gang-related taunt.

Asked about the shooting, Lara testified he saw two men running from the scene. He said he either picked up a gun or was handed a weapon by one of the men, whom he could not identify, and hid it inside the house.

“Why would you take a gun and go hide it?” Deputy Public Defender William Markov asked.

“So the guy that was running wouldn’t get busted,” Lara said. “The people I hang around with, they would do stuff like that for each other.”

On cross-examination, Deputy Dist. Atty. John West challenged Lara’s story and suggested Lara had tailored his testimony to fit evidence presented during the three-week trial. According to police, the murder weapon was found in a bedroom closet at the house and Lara’s fingerprints were on it.

The trial is expected to resume today in Ventura County Superior Court.