Third instance of Riverside sisters to play vandalism reported Becker Ampitheater News 3 A&E 4 Monday March 2, 2015 The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton Volume 97 Issue 18 Murder Blaze destroys Dillon’s trial remarks finish Jury to deliberate in trial for murder of former student SPENCER CUSTODIO Daily Titan Closing arguments end- ed Friday after two days of statements from prosecution and defense attorneys in the trial of Samuel Lopez, who is accused of murdering former CSUF student Cathy Torrez in 1994. Torrez’s body was found in a car trunk outside a Placen- tia hospital in February 1994 and Samuel Lopez has been the prime suspect since then. The two were high school sweethearts. Defense attorney Lew- is Rosenblum told the jury throughout his closing ar- gument that the prosecution has no physical evidence that pins Samuel Lopez to the murder of Torrez. “There’s virtually no ev- AMANDA SHARP / DAILY TITAN idence against my client,” Five fire agencies responded to a fire at Dillon’s Bar and Grill early Sunday. The blaze was put out shortly after 9 a.m., but no part of the building was undamaged by the Rosenblum told the jury. fire, leading fire officials to declare the building a “total loss.” Nearby businesses were also evacuated, but tenants were allowed back in later in the day. “I’m going to reshape the way you look at this case.” He aruged police found no Fire began Sunday fire battalion was assigned bloody clothing, no stolen to fight the blaze, Kunze items, no murder weapon or morning, resulted said. anything else to pin Samuel in ‘total loss’ Additional resources were to the murder. assigned as the blaze grew The defense maintained over the next few hours. The that Xavier Lopez, Samu- ALEX GROVES fire reached a four-alarm, el’s cousin, is the murder- Daily Titan four battalion designation er. Xavier’s fingerprint and before resources were able DNA were found on Tor- to control it. rez, Rosenblum said. Xavi- About 80 firefighters from The fire was knocked er Lopez is being tried five agencies fought a struc- down shortly after 9 a.m., separately. tural fire that broke out Sun- but firefighters remained Rosenblum argued that the day at Dillon’s Bar and Grill throughout the day to douse prosecution had only one sto- on Nutwood Avenue in Ful- the structure with water in ry—that Samuel’s reluctance lerton, Deputy Chief of Ful- order to cool it down. in the search for Torrez and lerton Fire Department Julie While she couldn’t as- his demeanor in the interro- Kunze said. sign an exact dollar amount gation room pointed to the The bar was described as to the damage, Kunze said fact that he killed Torrez a total loss with no part of the bar’s owners could be over a conflicted marriage the building unscathed by looking at somewhere be- proposal. the fire. tween $2-3 million-worth Senior Deputy District At- The fire was first reported of damage. AMANDA SHARP / DAILY TITAN torney Matt Murphy said that by an eyewitness shortly be- The fire, which was reported around 6 a.m., caused an estimated $2-3 million in damage, a fire Samuel killed Torrez because fore 6 a.m. and a one-alarm SEE FIRE 2 official said, but no civilians or firefighters were hurt as a result of the blaze. she didn’t want to elope. Rosenblum contested the eloping claim and said that there were conflicting ver- sions of that story among witnesses. Some witnesses said Tor- Titan baseball sweeps Baylor rez rejected his proposal, CSUF offense for the nation’s fifth-best others, however, said that strikeout-to-walk ratio at they brought it up jokingly erupts for 28 runs 18-1, but had yet to earn his and that the two were more first victory due to a lack of friends than an actual couple, in the series run support during his pri- Murphy said. or starts. The prosecutor side- MATT CORKILL That was not the case on stepped the conflicting elop- Daily Titan Friday, as the Titans ral- ing claim made by the de- lied for four runs on sev- fense and instead focused on en hits in the first three in- the defense’s depiction of the Cal State Fullerton’s of- nings to give Eshelman all murder, saying it didn’t make fense seems to have final- he needed. Eshelman went sense. ly shaken the offseason seven innings, allowing In response to the argu- rust, as it exploded for 28 one earned run on five hits, ment that Samuel’s DNA runs on 38 total hits this with seven strikeouts and should have been all over the weekend during the Titans’ two walks in that stretch. car that Torrez was found in, three-game series sweep “I just kind of beared the district attorney conclud- over the Baylor Bears. With down. In the back of my ed that Samuel simply did the wins, Fullerton pulls to head I was just thinking not shed any DNA. .500 on the season at 5-5. that these guys picked me The defense called the With weather forecasts up, so I need to pick them claim that Samuel is not a promising rain over the up right now,” Eshelman DNA shedder outrageous. weekend, the three-game said. “... It was just one of Samuel’s attorney told the set was pushed to a double- those days where I needed jury that the prosecution header on Friday and the fi- to make big pitches at big should have provided proof nal game on Saturday. moments, and it happened MATT CORKILL / DAILY TITAN that Samuel doesn’t shed During the Friday dou- for me today.” Sophomore outfielder Hunter Cullen celebrates scoring a run in the Baylor series. The Titans would DNA before starting the bleheader, the Titans set The offensive surgego on to score 28 runs in the homestand and sweep the Bears 10-1, 11-6 and 7-6. trial. their season-high hit total in game one saw six Ti- Rosenblum also asked the at 15 in the first game, be- tan batters with multi- that. It’s been a hard start, Game two began with by three runs in the top of jury if they heard any evi- fore setting the new mark ple-hit games, including but now it’s all starting to the Bears and Titans ex- the sixth inning and down dence of Torrez’s car being at 16 in the next. junior left fielder Tyler come together and we’re changing the lead three 5-6 coming into the bottom cleaned. In game one, junior start- Stieb’s three-run, two-RBI starting to figure it out,” times in the first four in- of the eighth. er Thomas Eshelman (1- performance. Stieb said following the 31 nings, before the Titans SEE TRIAL 3 2) took to the mound tied “It feels great. We needed hits collected on Friday. found themselves trailing SEE BASEBALL 8 FOLLOW US ON TWITTER: @THEDAILYTITAN VISIT US AT: DAILYTITAN.COM PAGE 2 MARCH 2, 2015 MONDAY NEWS DTBRIEFS Homeless man shot by officers Los Angeles Police Department officers shot and killed a home- less man on LA’s Skid row shortly after noon Sunday, the Los Angeles Times reported. The confrontation be- tween a group of offi- cers and a homeless man was caught on video, which was later posted to Facebook by a bystander. Witnesses gave con- AMANDA SHARP / DAILY TITAN flicting accounts of the incident, some saying that the man had been follow us fighting with another person when the police arrived and others con- @theDailyTitan tending that the man was lying on the ground when officers arrived. In the video, the home- less man is seen strug- gling with four officers before at least one of- ficer began shooting at FOR THE RECORD the man. The man has not been It is Daily Titan policy to correct factual errors identified, but was de- printed in the publication. Corrections will be pub- clared dead at a hospital lished on the subsequent issue after an error is after the shooting. Po- discovered and will appear on page 2. Errors on lice have not said how the Opinion page will be corrected on that page. many officers were in- Corrections will also be made to the online volved or how many version of the article. shots were fired. Please contact Editor-in-Chief Samuel - CYNTHIA WASHICKO Mountjoy at (657) 278-5815 or at AMANDA SHARP / DAILY TITAN [email protected] to report any errors. No civilian or firefighter was injured as a result of a blaze that began Sunday morning. Christian hostages Fire: Damages to released Nineteen Assyrian Editorial Christian hostages were released by the Islamic Editor-in-Chief Samuel Mountjoy State militants Sunday, Managing Editor Eric Gandarilla according to CNN. News Editor Cynthia Washicko cost $2-3 million The Syrian Observa- News Editor Alex Groves CONTINUED FROM 1 “And then it will be shored to neighboring business- tory for Human Rights, News Assistant Katherine Picazo up sometime tomorrow es. Tenants will be allowed an activist group based News Assistant Darlene Casas Fire officials will not when they can get structur- back inside, but officials in London, reported that Sports Editor Tameem Seraj know if the fire was the re- al engineers out so that the didn’t have an exact time 18 of the hostages were Sports Assistant Rudy Chinchilla sult of arson until the con- walls are stable, because for when that would hap- a part of the group of at Sports Assistant Matt Corkill clusion of their investiga- there’s no roof holding it pen, Kunze said.