Police: Two stories match

When telling Costa Mesa police how he and three friends took part in the shooting of a 15-year-old girl in 2008, Nestor Lopez hung his head in shame, police testified during Lopez’s preliminary hearing Monday.

Lopez, 17, was in court Monday with his three co-defendants for a hearing before Judge Robert C. Gannon Jr., who will determine whether they should stand trial on charges of shooting a girl on Shalimar Drive in July 2008.

Prosecutors have charged Lopez, along with Salvador Burciaga, 20, Cesar Pedroza, 19, and Oscar Ramos, 16, of attempted murder and conspiracy, each with gang-related enhancements. Police said the four drove to Shalimar Drive, gang territory in Costa Mesa. There, according to prosecutors, Burciaga got out of the car with a shotgun, jogged down to a crowd of people and shot a 15-year-old girl on the upper right side of her chest. She survived.

Officer Jason Chamness testified that during Lopez’s first interview with police about a week after the shooting, he admitted to being in the car. He told police the group was out “looking for enemies,” or gang rivals that afternoon, Chamness testified. He noted that Lopez was visibly emotional when recounting the incident, and claimed he thought the group was only going to scare people, not actually shoot anyone.

Officer Aaron Parsons testified that he interviewed Pedroza, who also admitted to taking part in the incident. Parsons testified that at first Pedroza lied about where he was that day, but when confronted with surveillance photos of him hanging out with the men an hour before the shooting, he confessed.

He also wrote an apology letter for the shooting, Parsons testified. The contents of the letter were not revealed in court Monday.

Officers testified that for the most part, Pedroza and Lopez’s stories matched. Police said the men confessed they were at Kmart, then later went to Albertsons. There, they got into a white sedan and inside was a shotgun, police testified. From there, prosecutors said the men made their way to Shalimar where Burciaga shot the girl, asking her and her friends “Where you from?” before firing one round.

The preliminary hearing is scheduled to continue today at the Harbor Justice Center.