Stearns Wharf Murder Case Declared Mistrial Due to Deadlocked Jury
Andrew Gillies
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The Stearns Wharf murder case was declared a mistrial due to a deadlocked jury on Tuesday. The jury voted 11 to 1 to convict, but a jury must vote unanimously for criminal verdicts.
Jiram Tenorio-Ramon, 25, of Santa Barbara was accused of fatally shooting Robert Dion Gutierrez of Camarillo in December 2022.
Santa Barbara County District Attorney John T. Savrnoch told Your News Channel Tuesday night his office will move to retry the case.
On the night of Dec. 9, 2022, shots rang out at Stearns Wharf between two groups and an uninvolved Camarillo man, Robert Gutierrez, who was on a walk with his wife to celebrate their anniversary was hit.
Gutierrez died from the gunshot wound on December 20, 2022, while receiving medical care at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
Four men and a 16-year-old were arrested the following month in connection with the fatal shooting and eventually three teens were also charged in connection with the shooting and being accessories after the fact.
“One group involved in the altercation has been identified as local Santa Barbara area residents with ties to a local Santa Barbara street gang,” shared the Santa Barbara Police Department in February of 2023. “The opposing group in the altercation has been identified as Ventura County residents with ties to Ventura County street gangs.”
By July of this year, the three other men had pled guilty to lesser charges leaving only Tenorio-Ramon to face charges of murder, personal and intentional discharge of a handgun causing death, and committing a penal code violation while on felony probation.
George Steele, an attorney representing Tenorio-Ramon during the murder trial, argued that the other gang members from Ventura County fired first and his client fired back in self-defense.
“All the other things that were basically designed to inflame your emotions and this one to make you think anything other than what was going on on that wharf was right or wrong,” stated Steele during the trial.
Final arguments were submitted and jury deliberations began on Wednesday of last week.
“You have to look at the gang evidence, you have to look at the text evidence. You have to look at the rap. You have to look at his actions and the statements in the days and weeks following the murder,” said Deputy District Attorney Tate McCallister who prosecuted the case. “If he [Tenorio-Ramon] was not down there looking for trouble why did he have a loaded 9 millimeter unserialized ghost gun on him? And why was he showing it to everybody that night?