A Santa Barbara County Superior Court jury was presented closing statements on Monday against Jiram Tenorio Ramon, an alleged gang member who is being retried for the murder of a man on Stearns Wharf in 2022.
Tenorio Ramon is being tried for allegedly carrying out the murder while being an active participant of a local criminal street gang. He allegedly killed innocent bystander Robert Gutierrez during a shootout between Tenorio Ramon and a rival gang on the wharf in December 2022.
The case originally ended with a hung jury in 2025.
The closing statement on Monday delivered by Attorney Tate McCallister lasted almost two hours and included a chronology of events leading up to the shooting, as well as events that followed after.
“To [Tenorio Ramon], killing anyone was okay,” McCallister said. “In fact, that was the goal.”
McCallister said the murder was pre-meditated over the span of two years. The prosecutor said Tenorio Ramon had been in fights with rival gang members in 2020, and began talking with other gang members about buying a gun that would “come in handy later” in fall 2022.
The attorney told the jury that these events led Tenorio Ramon to want to prove himself to Santa Barbara’s Westside gang.
On Dec. 9, 2022, Tenorio Ramon and some friends smoked and drank at Santa Barbara’s Painted Cave before driving to Stearns Wharf, McCallister said. Earlier that day Tenorio Ramon had shown Christopher Miranda, the driver of the group, the gun he had with him, he said.
The group was at Stearns Wharf by 8:30 p.m. when they decided to leave because the wharf was too crowded. While driving away from the wharf, Tenorio Ramon and his friends spotted another group who looked like they were gang affiliated, McCallister said.
Tenorio Ramon’s group flashed gang signs as they drove by the other group later identified as minors from Ventura, McCallister said. The Ventura group whistled back at Tenorio Ramon and his friends, and began to approach the car driven by Miranda.
McCallister said Miranda had testified that it looked like the Ventura group had a gun. According to video surveillance shown at the hearing, the car driven by Miranda pulled over past the kiosk at the wharf where Tenorio Ramon jumped out of the vehicle.
Shots were fired first by the Ventura group, followed by shots from Tenorio Ramon, McCallister said. The bullet that killed Gutierrez, the victim in the case, was likely from Tenorio Ramon, McCallister said at the hearing.
In the weeks that followed the shooting, Tenorio Ramon would go on to create a rap song that alludes to the events that transpired on Stearns Wharf. The song, played for the jury on Monday, included a statement that sang, “is you really down to kill or you just doing it for show.”
After Tenorio Ramon’s arrest in January, McCallister said gang affiliated emblems and markings that read “murder” were written on the wall inside of his jail.
“He thinks this is a murder,” McCallister said to the jury. “So should you.”
Closing arguments were expected to continue Tuesday.
