SAN LEANDRO — Life seemed to be going great for Izabella Raquedan-Retuta and her boyfriend, Angelo Ray.
The two teens had been dating for months. Ray, 18, was set to graduate from Lincoln High School in San Leandro, while Raquedan-Retuta had celebrated her 17th birthday weeks earlier. To outside observers, they seemed like two teens in love, ready to spend the summer together.
But now, Raquedan-Retuta — who went by “Bella” to friends and family — is dead and Ray is in jail, facing a murder charge that could put him in prison for life if he’s convicted. It all boils down to what happened inside Raquedan-Retuta’s bedroom on 1700 block of Bali Terrace in San Leandro, on the afternoon of May 12.
Other family members heard a gunshot and called 911, but Ray is the only one who knows exactly what happened. According to authorities, he’s told a consistent story since the fatal shooting: that he sincerely believed the gun was empty, but that, yes, he was the one to pull the trigger. He allegedly said as much to an Alameda County Sheriff’s deputy named Chavez — whose first name isn’t listed in court records — who was one of the first responders to get to the house.
That was all he needed to say. Sheriff’s deputies slapped handcuffs on him right there inside Raquedan-Retuta’s household and booked him on a murder charge. Ray’s deputy public defender, Jennie Otis, has tried — thus far, without success — to get him released from jail. Her argument is simple: Ray’s story is the truth, and now he’s grieving his girlfriend’s death from jail.
“According to his report, Angelo told Deputy Chavez that he and Bella were ‘playing’ with the gun and that neither of them knew it was loaded. Angelo said he pulled the trigger because he did not believe the gun was loaded. At that time, Angelo thought he shot her in the shoulder,” Otis wrote in a motion for bail. “Deputy Chavez described that Angelo was ‘cry(ing) hysterically as I spoke to him.’ ”
He wasn’t the only one. The local community has responded to Raquedan-Retuta’s death with an outpouring of grief. A local little league field — where she was known to volunteer at a snack bar — held a candlelight vigil two days later. A GoFundMe page for her family has raised $25,000 and counting.
“It is with broken hearts and knots in our throats that we share the devastating news of the tragic passing of our beautiful, sweet girl Bella Raquedan,” the page says. “Words cannot express how heartbroken and shocked we are, let alone how much pain we are in.”
Police reports and court records describing the incident say days earlier, Ray bought a pistol from someone for $900. His attorney says that was for protection, following a recent incident where “several young men brandished guns at him and his friends” after school. Ray was set to graduate from Lincoln High in coming weeks, and the continuation school’s principal wrote a support letter to the judge praising his “outstanding work” there.
Otis’ motion says Ray and Raquedan-Retuta had “dry fired” the gun before, which she attributed to their underdeveloped teenage brains. That’s apparently what happened on the afternoon of May 12, when Raquedan-Retuta staggered into her aunt’s room and collapsed on the bed following a gunshot.
Ray came in behind her. The family had stationary cameras on inside the home that captured what happened next, authorities said.
“She got shot,” Ray reportedly told Raquedan-Retuta’s aunt, who promptly jumped off the bed and began screaming for help, slapping Ray on the back on her way out. Two others in the home called police, while Raquedan-Retuta’s aunt demanded to know where the gun was.
Ray simply responded, “nobody cares,” according to police. Deputies found a Glock 17 9mm semi-automatic pistol inside the bedroom, along with a spent cartridge. The gun had no magazine inside but was equipped with a tactical strobe light, authorities said.
There was another thing noteworthy about the pistol: It had been reported stolen in Decatur, Georgia, back in 2013. Somehow, the pistol made its way to the Bay Area, where a high schooler purchased it from someone who hasn’t yet been publicly identified, authorities say.
Ray is scheduled to have a preliminary hearing on Friday, where a judge will review evidence and determine if there is enough for the murder charge to stick. If there is, the case will be set for trial at a to-be-determined date.
The hearing may also give Ray’s lawyer another chance to petition the court to set bail or release Ray outright.