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Teen cites threat, pressure in killing
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Posted on Mar 11 1999
A 15-year old witness yesterday named Jesse James Camacho as the person who ordered him to murder Antonio Sablan on April 30, 1998 during the first day of the jury trial.
The witness, who was tried and convicted as a minor for the same crime is now serving his term in the juvenile detention.
“I was scared and I didn’t want to,” he told the court. “If I won’t do it, I will die together with my parents.”
The witness said he was first ordered to get the sword inside the Sablan residence at DanDan homestead. Afterwards, Camacho gave him a knife and told him to go back to kill Sablan.
“I did what he told me,” he said. Sablan suffered multiple stab wounds on the neck, right arm, right thigh, right knee and chest.
He admitted the crime when he was interrogated by a police investigator.
Plaintiff lawyer Barry Hirshbein, assistant attorney general of the criminal division, asked the witness if he knew about the gang before the murder took place.
He told the seven-member jury that he learned about RED RUM from Camacho who described it as a “serious gang” where members are expected to follow orders. When he hesitated to join the group, he was beaten up.
A week before the murder, the witness was staying at an abandoned house near the Sablan’s. On April 30, 1998, the witness met Sablan for the first time when he and the other gang members went to the Sablan residence to play computer games.
Detective Eddie Chen of the Department of Public Safety also took the witness stand where he narrated his interviews with Camacho.
He said he first met Camacho after he was tasked to locate possible witnesses after the crime was discovered late in the afternoon last April 30.
When interviewed, Camacho just told him that he was at home and didn’t go anywhere during that day. Other interviews with Camacho conducted by another investigator showed that he spent time outside his house playing.
