After a brief court hearing Friday, arraignment was continued again for four men charged in the fatal shooting of a Camarillo man on Santa Barbara’s Stearns Wharf.
Seven people have been arrested in connection with the Dec. 9 shooting, including four Santa Barbara men and three juveniles who were arrested in Ventura and Los Angeles counties.
Santa Barbara police have said Robert Dion “Rob” Gutierrez, 52, was an “innocent bystander” who was shot as members of two criminal street gangs exchanged gunshots on Stearns Wharf.
The four Santa Barbara men charged in connection with the shooting were accused of committing the crimes for the benefit of the Santa Barbara Westside criminal street gang.
Charged with murder and other crimes were Jiram Tenorio Ramon, 22, Christopher Dave Miranda, 21, and Ricardo Tomas Jauregui-Moreno, 20.
Tenorio Ramon is specifically accused of using a handgun to intentionally kill Gutierrez, and discharging a firearm causing great bodily injury, according to the criminal complaint filed against him.
James Lee Rosborough, 21, was charged with being an accessory after the fact.
All four men are being held in Santa Barbara County jail custody without bail.
Their arraignments have been continued several times as they retain or are appointed defense attorneys, and on Friday, Superior Court Judge Raimundo Montes De Oca continued them again to Feb. 27.
Tate McCallister is prosecuting the case for the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office.
Defense attorney Doug Hayes said he could not represent Tenorio Ramon, and the court provisionally appointed the Public Defender’s Office to represent him. Deputy Public Defender Brian Mathis said the office needs to work out some conflict issues for the four-co-defendant case.
Defense attorney Andrea Keith is representing Moreno, and said she has filed motions opposing the no-bail order and the media requests for photos and videos in court.
Montes De Oca allowed media coverage in court and said he thought it was appropriate with the stipulation that no photos or video be taken of the defendants.
Keith said she had no objection to media coverage if there was no video or photos taken of her client. Most of the defendants have only appeared in court by Zoom, from media rooms at the jail facility.
Miranda is now represented by defense attorney Meghan Behrens, and Rosborough is represented by defense attorney Neil Levinson.
On Thursday, police said two juveniles were arrested on suspicion of murder, and a third was arrested on suspicion of accessory to murder and possession of a firearm.
Gutierrez, a Camarillo resident, “was an innocent bystander who was in Santa Barbara with his wife walking on Stearns Wharf when he was struck and killed by one of the rounds fired during an altercation between two groups of individuals at the base of the wharf,” police Lt. Kasi Corbett said in a statement.
“One group involved in the altercation has been identified as local Santa Barbara area residents with ties to a local Santa Barbara street gang. The opposing group in the altercation has been identified as Ventura County residents with ties to Ventura County street gangs.”