OAKLAND — A month after a San Leandro teen was charged with murdering his girlfriend in her bedroom, prosecutors failed their first test of the evidence.
Angelo Ray, 18, was initially charged with murdering his 17-year-old girlfriend, Izabella “Bella” Raquedan-Retuta, on the evening of May 12, inside the bedroom of her family’s San Leandro home. But at Ray’s preliminary hearing, Judge Thomas Stevens sided with a defense theory that the shooting was accidental and elected to order Ray to stand trial on an involuntary manslaughter charge, not murder.
“I have struggled to find evidence of wantonness here and I’ve struggled to find evidence that the defendant, who deeply cared for Bella…that he deliberately acted with conscious disregard for her life,” Stevens said at the hearing. Earlier in the hearing he called it a “terrible tragedy” and offered condolences to Raquedan-Retuta’s family.
“I cant imagine a more horrific moment in the lives of everyone involved,” Stevens said.
Stevens’ ruling likely cleared the way for Ray’s release. Ten days after the June 6 preliminary hearing, Judge Elena Condes released Ray from jail without bail, ordering him to not possess weapons and wear a GPS device, court records show. Despite Stevens’ ruling, prosecutors have re-filed the murder charge.
Authorities say that on the night of May 12, Ray shot and killed Raquedan-Retuta inside her bedroom. Ray had been living at the home, and later told investigators that the shot was fired as his girlfriend handed him the weapon, and that he didn’t know it was loaded.
Prosecutors have argued that Ray’s behavior showed reckless disregard for human life, regardless of Ray’s intention.
“He had a duty to minimize the dangers that he brought onto the victim as well as her family, a duty to check, to unload the gun, and he has a duty that he blatantly ignored,” Deputy District Attorney Josie Chan argued at the preliminary hearing. “And his failure to do so cost somebody their life.”
Ray’s lawyer, Jennie Otis, pointed to police testimony that Raquedan-Retuta’s uncle told authorities he treated her like a “princess,” and a detective’s description of Ray in tears, emotionally broken, and frequently questioning them whether Raquedan-Retuta was ok, unaware she was already dead. She also said in court that Ray, who was weeks away from graduating high school, was unable to spell his middle name when police asked him to.
“i would have made sure my finger was not on the trigger if I had known it was loaded,” Ray told detectives during the interview, according to police testimony.
While the murder charge stands, the preliminary hearing’s outcome specials trouble for a potential murder prosecution. The legal standard for such hearings is probable cause, much less than what jurors are given at a criminal trial.
Ray’s next court date has been set for August. His lawyer is attempting to get the murder case dismissed, and a trial date has not yet been set.