Man gets maximum sentence for Santa Cruz

A state District Court judge sentenced a Honduran man to 191/2 years in prison Friday for the killing of an unidentified man found a year ago in a drainage pit near Santa Cruz.

Ruben Peralta, 27, maintained his innocence Friday and told Judge Stephen Pfeffer that everything said about him in connection with the murder “has been a falsehood, a lie.”

“I know in my heart that I haven’t killed anyone,” Peralta said through a Spanish interpreter.

However, Pfeffer said he respected the jury’s decision convicting Peralta of second-degree murder, tampering with evidence and intimidation of a witness, and gave him the maximum sentence called for under the law.

“This was a senseless killing,” Pfeffer said.

The jury convicted Peralta of the crimes in July. The mother of his four children — Angela Moe — testified at his trial that Peralta and three other men — including the dead man — were drinking at a trailer on property near Santa Cruz owned by her father in September 2002. She said she later heard arguing coming from the trailer and saw a spot of blood inside.

She said she had heard Peralta talking about the incident several times during the ensuing years and once heard him say the dead man and another man had been arguing because the dead man wouldn’t buy more beer, and the other man stabbed him.

Moe’s father — Donald Moe — called police in September 2006 and reported a friend of his daughter’s had told him four years ago about seeing three males — including Peralta — carry a body out of a trailer. Donald Moe led police to a hole dug years earlier for a washing machine, and investigators found the dead man’s bones wrapped in a blanket.

Another man tried with Peralta — 31-year-old Rigo Trejo Camacho — was acquitted of murder but convicted of tampering with evidence. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 5.

The victim in the case was said to be a heavy-set Hispanic man with a bad back who probably was in his 50s. Prosecutor Barbara Romo said Friday that the man’s family likely will never know what happened to him.

“It’s really one of the saddest things that can happen,” she said, adding Peralta and the other men involved had discarded the victim “like a piece of garbage.”

Peralta will have to serve at least 85 percent of the 15 years he received for the second-degree murder conviction and a minimum of 50 percent of the remaining four and a half years on the other charges. He will be deported to Honduras when he is released.

Contact Jason Auslander at 986-3076 orjauslander@sfnewmexican.com.