By Ari Burack
April 24, 2008
Prosecutors today dismissed murder charges against a Daly City man accused in connection with a double fatal shooting outside a pizzeria in San Francisco’s Sunset District.
Matthew Owyang, 19, will likely be set free today after spending more than three weeks in jail for the March 29 fatal shootings of Jason de la Cruz, 31, of Daly City, and Derek Butch, 23, of San Francisco, at about 2:30 a.m. outside Irving Pizza.
After his April 1 arrest, Owyang pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder, two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a murder, and a special circumstances allegation of multiple murders that could have brought a sentence of up to life in prison.
Following three days of a preliminary hearing that featured vague and conflicting testimony from several eyewitness, and from friends of Owyang who apparently left the scene in Owyang’s car, prosecutor George Butterworth told Judge Kathleen Kelly this morning that he was “not comfortable” any longer holding Owyang on the charges.
Butterworth said one of the independent witnesses who testified in the hearing later spoke with a homicide inspector and said Owyang was not the person who fired the gun.
Butterworth added that several witnesses who testified told “dramatically different stories” on the stand than they previously told to homicide inspectors.
Owyang’s attorney Bill Fazio said the case was not just one where there was not enough evidence to prove Owyang’s guilt, but one “where my client is factually innocent of these charges.”
Connie Chan, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said after the hearing that an investigation into the case is continuing.
De la Cruz’s mother Carol de la Cruz said outside the courtroom that she and her family were “confident that the police are doing everything they can to find the actual shooter of our son.”
De la Cruz described her son, a father of three, as a beloved member of the community.
“He lived a full life,” de la Cruz said. “He was a very friendly person. He never was the cause of any conflict, but he would stick up for himself,” she said.
The Hunger Site
No Comments
Comments for Murder charges dismissed
in pizzeria double shooting case are now closed.