By Brian Anderson
Contra Costa Newspapers

Oct. 8, 2002

OAKLAND —Still learning the ropes of her new job, Cindy McNichols was winding down her first solo night as an Outback Steakhouse server. It had been a busy Friday at the Dublin restaurant and ketchup bottles as well as salt and pepper shakers had to be attended to.

But without warning, McNichols said Tuesday, her nervous night on the job turned toward terror.

“There was a lot of noise,” McNichols told an Alameda County jury. “I heard my friend … say ‘This isn’t a joke, we’re being robbed.’”

In the continuing trial of three men accused of killing deputy sheriff John Paul Monego, McNichols recalled the Dec. 11, 1998 night that sent the Regional street eatery into chaos and panic.

On the job for just about 10 days, she worried about making the cut, she said. She had worked with another server on previous nights, but had lost her shadow and was going it alone.

She had served fewer than 10 tables that night and was helping close down the restaurant as the clock ticked toward midnight when a man burst into the kitchen, McNichols said. He was herding a group of employees in the back, she said. He had a gun and gave the impression through his “dead eyes” that he was not afraid to use it, McNichols testified.

“There was no fear in his eyes,” she said. “There was nothing there.”

At one point, she said, at least two shots were fired. No one was hit.

The woman and the rest of the group were stuffed in a walk-in refrigerator. Emerging a short time later, they learned more about what had happened.

“I couldn’t believe it was happening,” she said. “It was very surreal. I was scared to death.”

Reuben Eliceo Vasquez, 27, Miguel Galindo Sifuentes, 23, and Hai Minh Le, 23, are each charged with a first-degree murder count and special circumstances. Prosecutor Jon Goodfellow has maintained that Vasquez killed Monego, who had responded to a 911 call made from the restaurant.

Under state law, all three men can be charged with murder. They face a possible death sentence in found guilty.

The trial is scheduled to continue today.