RAP SHEET

Dispatcher: 911 . . .

Caller: Hi, um, I live on Northeast Ninth Street and I believe yesterday somebody must have been doing some target shooting north of me?
D: OK.
C: And a bullet hit the house and penetrated, like, four walls through the house.
D: OK, Northeast Ninth Street?
C: That's correct. In Saylor Township.
D: What's your name?
C: Jennifer.
D: OK, we'll stop over and take a look for you.
C: OK, thank you.
D: Thank you.

Officer's Report: Jennifer reported that sometime between approximately 1430 hours and 1600 hours she heard a large amount of gunshots to the north of her property on Northeast Ninth Street. She was outside at the time doing yard work and she didn't think much of the gunshots because she had heard it before and it sounded far away from her residence. The next day, at approximately 0900 hours she was inside her house and was going up the stairs and saw a hole in the north living room wall. She believed that her husband may have damaged the wall accidentally. However, as she moved about the upstairs and she went into the spare bedroom on the north side of the house, she found a bullet hole in the window. She saw that the round had gone into the closet door and through the wall, into and through the bathroom wall, out the north living room wall and lodged into the south wall of the living room. She does not know who fired the round and she does not know where it had come from. Jennifer's husband said that when he repairs the wall he would try to recover the round and bring it to the Polk County Sheriff's Office. Both said that they have not had any problems with anyone and that they do not know why someone would do this other than reckless use of a firearm. I tried to locate where the location of the shot could have come from but I was unsuccessful. The area north of the residence is a wooded area.

Docket diving

Even hiding in the bedroom closet, Brenda Ramirez was certain she recognized her ex-boyfriend's voice as shots rang out from a semi-automatic weapon.

Ramirez and Juan Mandujano had just returned to Des Moines from California the day before with more than three pounds of methamphetamine, which they promptly stashed in the basement of their residence. But, believing the drugs were still hidden in the car, four intruders descended on the couple's home the night of Nov. 26, 2001, and, when they discovered another car blocking the vehicle they intended to steal, three men kicked in the back door of the house. Finding Mandujano awake in the bedroom, one of the men began firing a semi-automatic handgun and, with two shots, killed Mandujano just moments after he awoke.

At trial the state argued the trigger man was Pablo Esiquiel Benavidez, relying largely on evidence presented by Ramirez and Vonvichit "Shorty" Vilaysack. One of the four men who went to Mandujano's home, Vilaysack testified that it was Benavidez who directed the group to the home, told him they intended to steal the car, and after the shots were heard, ran out of the residence still shooting. Ramirez added that, having dated Benavidez several months prior to the crime, she was "100 percent certain" it was his voice she heard when the shooter started swearing after the fatal gun shots were fired. Not to mention, when police arrived to question him a month after the murder, Benavidez was found hiding in the attic and placed in custody only "after struggling with the officers, ultimately crashing through the ceiling and falling onto the kitchen floor."

But while a Polk County jury convicted him of first-degree murder, Benavidez appealed, arguing that much of the evidence had come from Vilaysack, who he alleged was an accomplice in the crime. As the Court of Appeals explained, such testimony is perfectly valid, so long as the accomplice's information is corroborated by other evidence. In this case, there was plenty of corroborating evidence, the court pointed out, including crime-scene cartridge casings that matched the weapon Benavidez had in his possession that night. Benavidez also claimed that the district court wrongly denied his counsel a continuance when the defense was informed the day before trial that "the State had recently become aware that a weapon used in a recent double homicide had been connected to an earlier drive-by shooting in which Benavidez may be a suspect, as well as an earlier shooting at the Mandujano residence." The defense argued such information could lead to another suspect, but the district court shot down the motion for more time and the Court of Appeals agreed such a ruling was proper. Finally, Benavidez charged in his appeal that the state unfairly eliminated minority members from the potential jury, noting that the only Hispanic and one of two African-Americans were tossed by preemptory strikes. But the appeals' court disagreed, noting that, with one African-American juror remaining there was no case for discrimination based on being black and, though the only Hispanic was given the boot, there was a clear race-neutral reason: "The prospective juror rolled his eyes when the prosecutor was addressing him and indicated his distrust of the criminal justice system." So just days before Christmas, the Court of Appeals affirmed the district's ruling, upholding Benavidez' conviction.

Sucks to be you

Name: Richard Efkamp
Place of Incident: East Side
Posed for this picture because: Richard Efkamp had three minutes of short-lived glory. Like a big-screen comedy gone bad, the Des Moines resident handed a note demanding money to the teller at Community State Bank and, once cash hit his hand, fled a short distance to change his clothes behind a restaurant. But, what the 46-year-old failed to notice was the bank worker trailing behind him on a cell phone, directing police to the robber's location before he could take his bounty more than two blocks. Efkamp was arrested and charged with second-degree robbery.

On the clock

Des Moines Police - Dec. 28

2:45 p.m. Assault in the 2700 block of Capitol Avenue, involving a grandmother and her 17-year-old grandson engaging in a verbal argument regarding the use of a car, during which the grandson became violent and told his grandmother, "You can't tell me what I can and can not do, bitch." After the grandmother "threw pop in his face," the grandson reportedly shoved her into the kitchen and "used a pop can to smash her finger against the counter."
4:20 p.m. Assault in the 6200 block of East Douglas Avenue, involving a female victim who was "questioned about some missing money" by two suspects. An argument ensued during which the victim was struck in the face and slapped as she tried to walk away.
8:35 p.m. Attempted burglary in the 3800 block of Dixon Street, involving a witness who was sitting in his car when he saw a white Buick pull up next to a victim's car and "break the front passenger window. The witness then yelled 'Hey' and they hit him in the arm with a pipe and then got back in the car and left."
9 p.m. Burglary in the 1400 block of 21st Street, involving the owner of Ladies 1st driving by his business, noticing the west rear door was ajar and discovering that a number of clothes, shoes and accessories had been stolen.
9:15 p.m. Assault in the 3300 block of 62nd Street, involving a male victim who made a wrong turn on a cul-de-sac and, when he turned around, found a suspect vehicle waiting for an extended period at the stop sign. When the victim went around the suspect's car the vehicle followed him and, when the victim pulled into the driveway of an unknown residence to turn around, the suspect blocked him in. When the victim got out of his car, the suspect approached him, punched him in the jaw and fought with him until the victim "yelled a name to make the suspect believe he was at his home address." The victim could not identify the suspect. However a cell phone was left at the scene.

(Alleged) drunk drivers

Name: Gerard Michael Wells
Arrested: Dec. 22
First offense

Name: Theresa Ann Bruce
Arrested: Dec. 23
Second offense

Name: James R. Sandahl
Arrested: Dec. 29
Second offense

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