By Brian Anderson
Contra Costa Newspapers

Oct. 3, 2002

OAKLAND —A waitress logging receipts in the back office of a Dublin steakhouse was warned the restaurant was being robbed moments before a gunman herded her and about two dozen others into a refrigerator, she said Thursday.

Jennifer Harding told an Alameda County jury that a co-worker barged into the office of the Outback Steakhouse where she and another worker were handling thousands of dollars of the eatery's cash. He seemed rushed, she said, grabbing an emergency signaling device as he relayed his warning.

"He said 'We're getting jacked, I think they're loaded,'" Harding testified. "I didn't think that much of it. When they left the office, I just went back to the computer."

In the continuing trial of three men accused of committing a robbery that led to the death of Deputy John Paul Monego, Harding recalled the scene from late that Dec. 11, 1998, night.

Soon after her co-workers left her, a commotion caught Harding's attention, she said. Someone had stormed into the kitchen, firing at least one gunshot, she said.

"It just sent me to the floor," Harding said. "I was very scared because I was with all the money so I figured that's where they were going to go."

And someone did, she testified, recalling when the restaurant's owner knocked at the office door.

"I looked right at (the owner) and I saw his face," she said. "Then somebody pushed me."

Harding stood with her hands in the air with a group of co-workers. They were scared, she said, and stood in silence as her boss went into the office.

It was then that a police dispatcher called. Someone had dialed 911 just as three men began robbing the restaurant and the official was asking if all was clear.

"Everything's fine," the owner told the official, as a man held him at gunpoint, a prosecutor has said.

He emerged from the office and everyone eventually was forced into the walk-in cooler, Harding said. It was stuffy as "20-some" workers packed inside, she told the nine-woman, three-man jury.

The group in the cooler heard nothing more until they came out a few minutes later. By then, Monego had been shot and killed, another deputy sheriff had been stripped of her weapon and the men accused of committing the crime were on the run. Police later arrested the three suspects after a short car and foot chase through the streets of Dublin.

Reuben Eliceo Vasquez, 27, who prosecutors say shot Monego; Miguel Galindo Sifuentes, 23; and Hai Minh Le, 23, each are charged with a first-degree murder count and special circumstances. They face a possible death sentence if found guilty.

The trial resumes Monday.