By Brian Anderson
Contra Costa Newspapers

Jan. 9, 2002

OAKLAND —Eyewitness accounts of a deadly Dublin restaurant robbery conflict with one another, leaving much about the Dec. 11, 1998 incident that left Deputy John Paul Monego dead open to question, a defense lawyer said Wednesday.

In the third day of closing arguments in the trial of three men charged with killing Monego, Pleasanton attorney Harry Traback tried to poke holes in what he told jurors was the prosecutor’s notion of a picture perfect puzzle.

He said that three separate witnesses testified during trial that they saw Reuben Eliceo Vasquez, 27, Miguel Galindo Sifuentes, 23, and Hai Minh Le, 24, at Table 16 before the Outback Steakhouse robbery began. That runs counter to deputy district attorney Jon Goodfellow’s contention that Sifuentes was the only one at the table, Traback said.

He pointed to another instance that night when a witness later placed Le at a walk-in refrigerator where about two dozen employees and customers were confined. Goodfellow has said that Sifuentes was the man ushering the hostages inside, Traback told jurors.

The scene was confusing, he said. People were running scared, a gunshot went off and some people were slipping on a slick kitchen floor. It was a chaotic situation that could have affected witness recollections, he said.

"The fact is that you have got to look at the witnesses to find out if there is any supporting facts ... as to what they say," said Traback, who represents Sifuentes. "There are so many problems and it doesn’t fit together like pieces of a puzzle."

Also on Wednesday, Vasquez defense attorney, William Cole, said Goodfellow was unnecessarily inflating the violence of the case. While acknowledging the robbery was tragic, Cole said there was no evidence of gratuitous violence at the Regional Street eatery.

"It's bad enough what happened," Cole told jurors during his continuing closing argument. "Why try to push the envelope beyond what the evidence will bear?" Vasquez, Sifuentes and Le are charged with a single murder count and special circumstances that could garner a death sentence.

Attorneys are expected to wrap up closing arguments today.