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Friday, September 3, 2010 | Serving Del Rio and Val Verde County: Since 1929
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Cummings found guilty
Published October 7, 2006
A man on trial for spraying his neighborhood with bullets was found guilty Friday morning of three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The five men and seven women on the jury hearing the case deliberated for slightly more than five hours Thursday night and Friday morning before returning the guilty verdict against Jordache Cummings, 25.
Cummings was charged following the shooting, which occurred outside his residence at 130 Gregory Drive in Val Verde Park Estates, just after midnight on June 5, 2005.
Testimony in the trial began Wednesday after opening statements by Assistant District Attorney Scott Greenbaum, who served as the lead attorney on the state’s case, and Cummings’ attorney, Jack Stern of Del Rio.
The state’s first witness was Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. James Riddle, who was the first lawman at the scene of the shooting.
Riddle testified he had been out on patrol, had returned to the sheriff’s office and was entering the sheriff’s office dispatch center when he heard a 9-1-1 call on speaker phone. “I heard gunfire in the background (of the call), and I started running to the squad car,” Riddle recalled on the stand.
Riddle testified he was dispatched to the site of the shooting, 130 Gregory Drive, and that on his way there, he encountered a Chevy Blazer at the intersection of Gregory Drive and Hamilton Lane, less than two blocks from the sheriff’s office.
Riddle said he told the occupants of the Blazer to go on to the sheriff’s office and continued to 130 Gregory.
Riddle told the jury he saw two men in the yard of the residence when he arrived there. A few feet behind them, he said, he saw an AK-47.
Riddle testified he drew his service weapon and ordered both men to the ground.
He said he handcuffed Cummings and placed plastic “flexicuffs” on the second man, identified as Joey Dueñez.
The deputy said he put the AK-47, its barrel still warm, in his patrol car.
Riddle, responding to Greenbaum’s questions, told the jury he had been in the U.S. Army for 7 1/2 years, serving in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Cuba.
The AK-47, Riddle told jurors, is a semi-automatic firearm, and further explained that its trigger must be squeezed for every shot fired.
Greenbaum also asked Riddle about the deputies’ subsequent search for other guns and other weapons.
Riddle said no other guns, and no shell casings from weapons other than the AK-47, were found.
VVSO Sgt. James McGonagill and VVSO Lt. Larry Pope, both sheriff’s office investigators, also testified about the searches and subsequent investigation of the shooting.
McGonagill said 28 shell casings were recovered from Cummings’ yard.
When Stern asked McGonagill if it was possible that deputies had simply missed finding another weapon during their searches of the area, McGonagill replied that sheriff’s office personnel had stayed at the scene from about 12:30 a.m. on June 6, 2005 until 2 or 3 p.m. later that day and that no other weapon was found.
McGonagill testified that a bullet shot from an AK-47 might travel three miles and that bullet holes were found in two homes, two vehicles and a camper trailer in the area of the Cummings residence.
McGonagill also testified that deadly force should only be used when all other options have failed.
Though under cross-examination by Stern, McGonagill said that he would use deadly force if his life or someone else’s life were threatened.
He told Stern that if he was mistaken in the use of that force, “I’ll be sitting the same place that man is,” and nodded at Cummings.
When Stern asked McGonagill what rules he operated under if deadly force was used against him, McGonagill replied, “If my life or any other person’s life is threatened, if I decide to do it, I can use deadly force, but that’s the last resort, the last resort.”
On Thursday, jurors also heard the testimony of Maria de Jesus Lopez, who lives across the street from Cummings.
Lopez testified she had seen the Chevy Blazer drive up to Cummings home and had seen two persons get out of the vehicle and begin walking toward the residence.
The next thing she said she heard was the sound of gunshots.
“I didn’t see any weapons on them. I just saw them run away from the residence and back toward the vehicle,” she said.
Lopez also testified that she kept hearing shots as the Blazer sped away.
The jury also heard the testimony of the occupants of the Blazer, two of whom were injured in the shooting.
Albert Urbina was grazed on the chest by a bullet, and Johanna Mojica was struck in the right calf by bullet fragments.
Both Urbina and Mojica testified, as did Jessica Villarreal and Juan Dario Rivera, who also were occupants of the Blazer. The fifth person in the Blazer was a 7-month-old child.
Pope, who testified on Friday morning, told the jury about interviewing Cummings and the other persons involved in the shooting.
Pope also testified about the locations where investigators found bullet holes and bullet fragments.
When it was Stern’s turn to present witnesses to the jury, he called on a former neighbor of Cummings, Heriberto Guerrero.
Guerrero testified he saw the Blazer in front of Cummings’ residence and that he saw a figure standing near the vehicle headlights.
He repeatedly said he had seen “fire” coming from the end of the figure’s outstretched arm.
The case went to the jury after closing arguments by Greenbaum and Stern.
SUNDAY:
Punishment phase
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