Work for ERWC IV



Teen found guilty of Yuba City murder - Preciado jury deliberates only 90 minutes

January 24, 2001 09:00:00 AM By Harold Kruger- Appeal Online

A Sacramento jury took just 90 minutes Wednesday to find 15-year-old Thomas Antonio Preciado guilty of first-degree murder in the July 1999 fatal stabbing of Rupinder Dhillon.

Sentencing was set for Feb. 15 in Yuba City. Preciado, the youngest person in Sutter County ever tried for murder as an adult, faces 25 years to life in prison.

''It was gratifying to see they were able to reach a verdict in this tragic case so quickly,'' said Sutter County Deputy District Attorney Olaf Hedberg.

As the murder verdict was read, Preciado put his right hand to the side of his head and began sniffling. His mother, Naomi Ramirez, sitting in the first row of the spectator section, cried.

On the other side of the courtroom, Dhillon's daughter softly cried, comforted by her husband.

The jury of seven women and five men also found Preciado guilty of second-degree robbery and second-degree burglary for the July 7, 1999, incident at the S.S. Mini-Mart on Live Oak Boulevard.

Preciado, armed with a kitchen knife, went into the store, demanded money and stabbed Dhillon, producing 20 knife wounds, when she resisted. Dhillon, 50, died a few hours later at Rideout Memorial Hospital.

''Once he had made up his mind, taken the knife there, a life was taken because of that, that, as the prosecuting attorney (explained), is murder in the first,'' said juror Dennis Kennedy. ''You have nowhere to go if we follow the law. That's what these people were chosen for, to follow the law.''

As the jurors were polled about their verdict, Naomi Ramirez's crying turned into moans heard throughout the courtroom. A relative comforted her.

''It's not fair,'' Preciado's uncle, Ruben Ramirez, said outside the courtroom. ''He shouldn't even be in adult court. Why is he here? Because they're loaded with money. I think Yuba City was influenced by the Dhillon family, and that's why they moved it to over here.''

The defense was granted a change of venue because an impartial jury could not be found in Sutter County due to pre-trial publicity. Ruben Ramirez said the case should have stayed in Juvenile Court.

''What happened to Mr. Preciado is the result of what he did and not any money anybody had,'' Hedberg said. ''I meant what I said in the courtroom. There are no winners here. ''I take great pride in my job as a professional. There have been other people I take great pride in prosecuting, but I felt what I did here was necessary. It brought me no joy to convict Thomas Preciado at age 15 of first-degree murder. It was necessary for the community and for the people of the state of California.''

Ruben Ramirez blamed Rideout Memorial Hospital for Dhillon's death, saying, ''The hospital let her die.''

Judge Joseph Harvey, citing prior court decisions, barred the defense from using a medical malpractice defense.

''I'm sure it was in all the juror's minds,'' Kennedy said of Dhillon's hospital treatment, but defense attorney Roy Van den Heuvel ''didn't go there with it. It wouldn't have mattered. It would not have mattered at all. It's not the doctor's fault that she died. She died because of her wounds.''

Van den Heuvel left the courtroom by a side exit and could not be reached for comment. Members of the Dhillon family were escorted out of the courthouse.

''All we have to say is we are grateful to the DA's office for all the hard work and professionalism,'' son-in-law Harry Gill said in a telephone interview.

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