Nine-year-old Norte
ño gang murder cracked through diligence of county investigator
and Morgan Hill cops
Justice can be served cold and slow
– at least, that’s what two former Morgan Hill gang members
found out this week.
Nine-year-old Norteño gang murder cracked through diligence of county investigator and Morgan Hill cops
Justice can be served cold and slow – at least, that’s what two former Morgan Hill gang members found out this week.
In a scenario reminiscent of TV’s “Cold Case Files,” Morgan Hill police and a dogged county investigator believe they solved a murder nearly a decade old and arrested two suspects in Stockton this week. Rico Clarke and Uvaldo Salinas didn’t even see the cops coming when they were arrested in their homes – nine years after the fact. The two, who are now family men, were in their early 20s when the murder took place in Morgan Hill, said Sgt. David Swing of Morgan Hill Police Special Operations.
“I don’t know if they are still affiliated (with the Norteños,) but they were not expecting the police,” Swing said.
The victim was Carmel Rodriguez, who on June 13, 1997, was shot in the back of the head in the parking lot of a Morgan Hill apartment complex at 40 W. Dunne Ave. Police say Rodriguez, 29, was not the intended target of the shooters, who committed the crime on foot. Though their target was hit as well, he escaped major injury and recovered.
Just moments before the hail of bullets ripped short his life, Rodriguez was chatting with friends under a carport in the parking lot. He died at the scene.
Morgan Hill police said the murder was gang-ignited, but it was the blood result between two rival Norteño street gangs – instead of the usual warring between the red-dressed Norteños and the blue-garbed Sureños. Several days before the murder, a fight had broken out between the two gangs in the same vicinity as the murder. One of the eventual suspects had been hit in the head with a board.
The murder went unsolved for nine years and became one of the few unsolved murders in Morgan Hill Police Department’s cold case files, until December 2005. That’s when a tenacious investigator from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office re-opened the case and started working with local police to close the crime.
“It’s not like we have a backlog of cold cases, but this case was inactive for some time,” Sgt. Swing said.
Investigator Michael Schembri spent several hundred hours re-interviewing witnesses and involved parties, including present and former gang members.
“This case would not have been cleared had it not been for the tenacity and efforts of Investigator Schembri,” said Morgan Hill Police Chief Bruce Cumming. “He came to us and asked about our 1997 homicide and asked for everything we had.”
In a statement to the press, Schembri said he was greatly aided by Morgan Hill Detective Chris Wagner, who is no longer with the department. Other lawmen involved in solving the murder were not available as of deadline because, according to a police spokesperson, they were busy booking the suspects into the Santa Clara County Jail.
On Wednesday, July 26, Stockton police arrested Uvaldo Salinas, 31, at his home in that city following another Stockton arrest made the previous Thursday of Rico Alonzo Clarke, 28. A third suspect, Roberto Emilio Aparicio, 29, is still at large in El Salvador where he was deported several years ago. Swing said he couldn’t begin to speculate on whether Aparicio would ever be apprehended.
But he’s glad two of three suspects are behind bars.
“It’s great to bring some justice to the victim and to hold people accountable for these crimes,” Swing added.
