Witness describes hearing gunshots that killed girl

Erica D. Johnson

Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2003 | 9:33 a.m.

A North Las Vegas man on Tuesday told jurors that Pascual Lozano looks very similar to the man he saw holding a gun shortly after a shooting that killed a 9-year-old girl.

Jonathan Barrales said he was in his apartment at 3411 Civic Center Drive on Sept. 7, 2002, when he heard two to three gunshots ring out. He said that when he looked out his window, he noticed a man getting into a green, four-door vehicle that was parked on the street.

"I saw the car in the middle of the street and I saw the back part of the individual," Barrales told Chief Deputy District Attorney Ed Kane through a Spanish-speaking interpreter.

"I'm sure that was the individual who shot the gun because when I saw him, he had a gun."

Barrales said the man hopped into the backseat of the car and the car sped off, heading north on Civic Center Drive. Barrales described the suspect as a Hispanic man with a medium build who was wearing blue pants and a white shirt. Prosecutors believe Lozano wore a blue shirt the day of the shooting.

From the witness stand, Barrales pointed to Lozano as the man he thought he saw standing outside his window.

"This individual is very similar to the one that I saw," Barrales testified.

Lozano, 24, faces a possible death sentence if convicted in the killing of Genesis Gonzalez. Prosecutors say a bullet meant for a man named Robert Valentine actually hit Gonzalez and wounded her 8-year-old sister Heidi.

The children were playing in the courtyard of their apartment complex near Cheyenne Avenue when one of the bullets struck Gonzalez in the chest. Authorities say Lozano, an alleged gang member, was the triggerman.

Valentine, a key witness in the trial, was expected to take the witness stand when testimony in the trial continued this afternoon.

Under cross-examination by defense attorneys Tuesday, Barrales acknowledged that he did not see the face of the alleged gunman and he was unsure how much the man weighed.

In a photo lineup with police the day after the shooting, Barrales was unable to identify Lozano as the man he saw with the gun, he said.

Prosecutors hoped that earlier testimony from Michael Martinez, a forensic scientist from a criminal investigation laboratory in Texas, helped link Lozano to the crime.

Martinez told jurors that microscopic particles of gunshot residue were found on the blue T-shirt prosecutors say Lozano wore during the shooting.

The particles, located on the upper right chest and left sleeve of the T-shirt, are so small that they cannot be detected with the naked eye, Martinez said.

The scientist was unable to find similar gunshot residue particles on Lozano's hands, however.

He said he could not determine "if Lozano discharged the firearm or was (just) in close proximity to the discharged firearm."

Under cross-examination by Deputy Special Public Defender Bret Whipple, Martinez said the tests were unable to determine whether the particles were a result of primary or secondary transfer.

Secondary transfer means it is possible for gunshot residue to be transferred from one person to another long after a firearm is discharged, he said. It is also impossible to determine when the particles were deposited on the shirt, Martinez said.

Gonzalez's family members were in the courtroom during Tuesday's testimony, and several friends of Lozano's were asked to leave the courtroom bybailiffs for making allegedly disruptive comments during and after Martinez's testimony.