When Jose Juan Iniguez Loza found out that the man he was being hired to kill was a friend, Loza knew there was no way he could do it, a sheriff's detective testified Tuesday.

With the intended victim's cooperation, Loza and two other men allegedly “decided to turn the tables” on Francisco Taran Lopez, who, by his own admission, had hired Loza to kill Victor Hugo Garcia Jimenez.

According to testimony from Lopez and Detective Chris Corbett during a two-day preliminary hearing in Santa Maria, Lopez was encouraged to come along to the mountains above Santa Barbara County with Loza and the others to witness the killing of Jimenez.

Instead, according to Lopez, he was stabbed, beaten, sexually assaulted and left for dead.

Loza, 28, Jimenez, 22, and Antonio Gonzalez Hernandez, 16, all of Lompoc, were held to answer charges Tuesday in connection with the Oct. 22 attack on Lopez, 23, also of Lompoc.

Tuesday, Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Zel Canter ordered the defendants to stand trial on all charges filed against them at the conclusion of their preliminary hearing, which began April 30 and was continued to Tuesday.

The defendants are due back in a Santa Maria courtroom on June 2.

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They have been charged with attempted murder, torture and other charges and special allegations in the case. Attorney Michael Scott is representing Loza in the matter; David Bixby is the attorney for Hernandez; and Michael Clayton is defending Jimenez.

The defense attorneys did not present witnesses during the preliminary hearing.

Chief Trial Deputy Ann Bramsen of the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office is prosecuting the case along with Deputy District Attorney Cynthia Nulman.

Although he is a minor, Hernandez is being tried as an adult.

A fourth alleged assailant, Victor Amezcua of Lompoc, remains at large.

Lopez pleaded guilty to one count of solicitation to commit murder for the initial plot, but in exchange for his truthful testimony in the case he will avoid prison time.

Lopez and the defendants all speak Spanish and used court interpreters.

Corbett, the detective, testified Tuesday that Loza told him that he was approached by Lopez with a job proposition for some “serious work.”

Lopez reportedly told Loza that two armed men had raped his girlfriend, Griselda Garcia, whom he called his wife.

After hearing the description of Jimenez, Loza realized the target was his friend.

Loza and Hernandez spotted Jimenez from a car and approached him, Corbett said.

According to what Corbett said Jimenez told him, Loza told Jimenez he was hired to kill him. Jimenez denied any wrongdoing with Garcia, and Loza and the group decided to beat and rob Lopez instead of going after Jimenez, Corbett said.

Lopez, who testified he was a crystal methamphetamine dealer, showed up at a park with $1,000 and two “eight balls” of methamphetamine for Loza as payment for the hit, the detective said.

Once in the mountains, Amezcua struck Lopez, the detective testified.

Jimenez, who had been tied in the back seat of the car under the pretense that he was going to be killed, was untied and the group began instead to beat Lopez.

Jimenez told Corbett he ran back to the car to wait after hitting Lopez a few times.

The other men returned to the car and told Jimenez that Lopez was dead, Corbett said.

Hernandez told a similar account as Jimenez, Corbett said, except Hernandez said he was the one who returned to the car after striking Lopez a few times.

Under cross-examination from Scott, Loza's attorney, Corbett testified that each defendant admitted to serious crimes, but none mentioned there was a sexual component to the crimes.

Prior to Corbett taking the witness stand, the defense attorneys questioned Lopez, who initially testified on April 30 and wrapped up his testimony on Tuesday. Lopez said he has gone blind since the assault.

Lopez said under questioning from Scott that he couldn't see who was actually sodomizing him, but could hear the alleged culprits saying to each other, “It's your turn.”

Lopez said he was “nervous” when he told detectives earlier that there were three cars in the caravan to the mountains, instead of two as he testified during the preliminary hearing. He likewise said he was nervous when he told detectives previously that there were six attackers.

Bixby, Hernandez's attorney, asked Lopez about his client's whereabouts during the assault.

“I couldn't tell you,” Lopez responded.

He said he had seen four culprits “because I saw the shadows on the car.”

Clayton, Jimenez's attorney, asked Lopez how many times he had met his client.

“I would just see him in the street,” Lopez said, and said that he had never talked to him and never sold him drugs.

On April 30, Corbett testified that Hernandez admitted several days after the attack on Lopez that he then stabbed Loza and Garcia when he became paranoid, while high on methamphetamine, that the two were plotting to kill him.

Hernandez was held to answer attempted-murder and assault charges Tuesday in connection with that incident.

Hernandez and Loza also face charges in a separate case involving a home-invasion robbery in Lompoc Oct. 23 in which an 82-year-old woman was beaten and had more than $400 worth of possessions stolen.

Loza and Hernandez are facing multiple felony counts in the robbery case, including false imprisonment and assault with a deadly weapon.

Samantha Yale can be reached at 739-2159 or syale@santamariatimes.com.

May 7, 2008