Prosecutor Lists the ‘Table of Contents’ in Crime Spree as Medina Trial Begins

Within three weeks in 1984, said the prosecutor, Teofilo Medina Jr. murdered three store clerks using hollow-point bullets and the gun that he stole less than three months after his parole from prison.

The “table of contents,” as Deputy Dist. Atty. Bryan F. Brown described it at the start of Medina’s trial Monday, was brief:

- Horacio H. Ariza, 20, a clerk at the Arco Sunshine Mini Market, 2940 N. Bristol St. in Santa Ana, was shot in the chest, then again from close range in the right temple. The amount taken was $100.

- Douglas Michael Metal, 23, a clerk at the Garden Grove Drive-In Dairy, 12811 Garden Grove Blvd., was shot once behind the left ear, while lying on his stomach, from point-blank range. Missing: $58 in cash.

- Victor Manuel Rea, 20, manager of the Gasco service station, Newhope Street and McFadden Avenue in Santa Ana, also while lying on his stomach, was shot twice from behind the left ear. The robber took $198.

“There is only one purpose for those bullets, and that’s to kill,” Brown said. “The defendant had a plan, and that’s to get the money and to leave no witnesses.”

Lawyers for Medina, 43, have entered an insanity plea in the trial, which began before Orange County Superior Court Judge James K. Turner. The jury did not hear from Ronald P. Kreber and James Stone, co-counsel for Medina, who said they would make their opening statements later in the trial.

Medina had been paroled to California from Arizona just three months before the robberies, where he had served a seven-year sentence for kidnaping and rape. Before that, he had served a five-year sentence in California for a barroom shooting.

Brown told jurors that Medina’s crime spree came to an end on Nov. 7, 1984, when he entered the B & W Market on West McFadden Avenue in Santa Ana.

Instead of complying with the bandit’s order to hand over the money, the manager, Peter Yoon, ran out the door “yelling like a wounded duck.”

Two people who were driving by, Daniel Barrow and Cynthia Ann Police, saw Yoon and then the robber leave the market.

While the man identified as Medina tried to start his car, Barrow, 24, ran up to the vehicle and confronted the apparent holdup man.

Barrow “couldn’t think of anything to do, so takes off his hat and throws it at Medina,” Brown said.

Both police and Barrow then chased the robber by auto for 20 minutes through Santa Ana, taking down the license number of the car.

Traced through the license plate, Medina was arrested without further incident later in the day after police staked out his sister’s home in Lake Elsinore, Brown said.

Medina was described by a psychologist before the trial as believing himself to be a “warlock or a high priest, someone who has been in collaboration with Satan.”

Last July, he disrupted pretrial courtroom proceedings several times with outbursts.

In court Monday, Medina was shackled with one chain between his ankles. His hands were shackled to a chain around his waist.