Trio accused of gunning down Indio man to stand trial for murder

Three gang members accused in the slaying of an Indio man must stand trial for first-degree murder and other charges, a judge ruled today.

Oscar Angel "Sniper" Bustos, 32, Itati Maribi Ceja, 27, and Robert "Bubba" Ruiz, 33, allegedly killed Jason Diaz in 2020.   

Following a preliminary hearing at the Larson Justice Center Friday, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Jason Stone found there was sufficient evidence to bound the trio over for trial on the murder count, as well as criminal street gang activity and a special-circumstance allegation of killing
for the benefit of a gang.

Bustos and Ruiz were additionally held to answer for sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations, while Ruiz alone was bound over for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The judge scheduled a post-preliminary hearing arraignment for the defendants on May 31.

The two men and Ceja are being held without bail at the Byrd Detention Center in Murrieta.    According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed by Indio police Detective Justino Perez, on the night of June 24, 2020, there was an unspecified confrontation between the defendants and the victim outside a residence in the 85-100 block of Armata Street.   

Perez said that patrol officers were sent to investigate a "shots fired" call and found Diaz laying on a sidewalk, dead from several gunshot wounds. There was a knife in one of his hands.

A witness, whose identity was not disclosed, later told officers she saw two people "batter'' the victim, then open fire with a handgun. She said that afterward, Diaz pleaded for help, at which point one of the assailants walked back to the victim and fired another shot into him as he lay helpless on the sidewalk, according to the declaration. In the ensuing days, investigators identified Bustos and Ceja as two of the three people allegedly involved in the fatal attack. They were arrested without incident within a week.

Ruiz was identified later and taken into custody without incident at the end of July 2020.

Court records show he has prior convictions for spousal abuse and evading arrest. Bustos has priors for burglary, gang activity and related felonies, while Ceja has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.