Dragging death witness 'freaked out'

A Yuba City woman took the stand Thursday in Sutter County Superior Court and described watching the final seconds of the incident that left Willie Dean Roberts Jr. lying dead under a pickup.

It was the second day in the trial of alleged gang members Aaron Richard Ouellette and Michael Angelo Sanudo, charged with the dragging death of Roberts late Sept. 28, 2007.

Christina Dearden testified she was lying in bed in her second-floor bedroom on Casita Drive when she heard "skidding and screeching" noises outside and saw a pickup stop in front of her apartment. The front seat passenger got out, looked under the truck and ran off. Then the driver got out and walked away, she said.

Dearden said she "freaked out" when she saw a leg under the truck and an arm wrapped around the right front tire. Neighborhood girls tried unsuccessfully to push the truck off the body, she said.

About 6 a.m. the following day, Yuba City police called and drove her to Shasta and Center streets where two men had been arrested. After viewing the men in the headlights of a patrol car, Dearden said one of them walked like the driver she'd seen leaving the pickup. She said she was 60 percent sure it was the same man, Yuba City Officer Michael Bullard testified.

Police and prosecutors say Ouellette was the driver and Sanudo the passenger.

Detective Steve Thornton said he found a trail of blood starting on La Colina Lane, the alley street behind Casita Drive where the incident began. Next to the blood trail were acceleration marks left by a vehicle, he said. Also found in the alley were an empty wallet and two Budweiser beer cans, Thornton said.

In his opening statement Wednesday to jurors, prosecutor Chris Carlos said one of the beer cans had Ouellette's fingerprints and the other had Sanudo's.

Evidence technician Christine Kidd, now retired, said she lifted a latent fingerprint from the passenger-side of the pickup's door frame. Carlos said earlier the print was Sanudo's.

Kidd said she found six $1 bills in the left front pocket of a pair of below-the-knee shorts in Sanudo's Shasta Street apartment shortly after the pair was arrested. Earlier, a witness said she saw pieces of paper flying as one of the man ransacked the pockets of the unconscious Roberts.

Ouellette and Sanudo are being held without bail in Sutter County Jail. Both are appearing in court in civilian clothes and without shackles.