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Prosecutors drop murder charge against youth

Miguel Lara's lawyer argued that he shot a man three years ago, at age 13, to protect his brother.

By CHRISTOPHER GOFFARD
Published February 23, 2005

TAMPA - Prosecutors dropped a murder charge Tuesday against the teenage son of a Mexican migrant worker family, three years after he was arrested for gunning down a man in the parking lot of a Plant City Wal-Mart.

Prosecutors said they were unable to disprove that Miguel Lara, who was 13 at the time, acted in defense of his brother when he shot 18-year-old Julio Cesar Ruiz in February 2002.

Lara's lawyer, Rick Escobar, said the Plant City Police Department "did a very poor job" of investigating the case, including cataloging and preserving evidence.

"Officers jumped the gun" in charging Lara, Escobar said. "The lead detective did not even know a screwdriver had been found next to the alleged victim before charging (Lara) with second-degree murder."

By the defense's account, the incident started when Lara and his older brother, Daniel, pulled into the parking lot of a Wal-Mart on James Redman Parkway on the afternoon of Feb. 24, 2002. There, they chanced upon their sister, Eva, who was in the company of Ruiz, her live-in boyfriend.

Daniel Lara tried to speak to his sister, who had been having emotional trouble. Ruiz took a chrome screwdriver out of his van and lunged at him with it, tearing his shirt and inflicting a superficial abdominal wound, according to defense witnesses.

Miguel Lara took a gun from beneath the seat of his brother's Cadillac and, when Ruiz lunged at the brother again, shot him, the defense said. In court papers, the defense refers to Ruiz as "a member of a violent street gang."

For more than two years, Miguel Lara, now 16, has remained at home wearing an electronic ankle monitor while awaiting trial. The charge could have brought him life in prison.

"He's ready to go back to school and get on with his life," said Escobar, a prominent defense lawyer whose services in this case - including the taking of thousands of pages of depositions - made for hefty legal fees. Escobar said Lara's large family, which works the fields around Plant City, pooled their money to retain him.

Lara declined to comment for this story.

Hillsborough state attorney spokeswoman Pam Bondi said an inability for many months to track down Daniel Lara contributed to delays in the case. She said the defense ultimately found him.

"The case was constantly evolving based on the witnesses coming in and giving their statements," Bondi said. "The final statement that convinced us of our decision was the brother's testimony saying that the victim came at him with a screwdriver."

In a November 2004 deposition, James Cross, the lead detective on the case, said he believed he decided to charge Lara before he learned of the screwdriver Ruiz wielded.

Christopher Goffard can be reached at 813 226-3337 or goffard@sptimes.com

[Last modified February 23, 2005, 00:34:19]