That night in August 2009 started out as a typical night for Patricia Robles. Her boyfriend was out selling tacos, her teenaged daughter was watching TV and she was chatting with her cousin, smoking cigarettes and doing laundry as her 8-month-old son played nearby.
Suddenly, a gray sports utility vehicle pulled up in front of her house and a group of armed men rushed in through the kitchen door.
"They were yelling at us, telling us to get on the floor," Robles recalled Thursday in Pima County Superior Court. "We were asked to take off our clothes."
As they were disrobing, the men demanded to know where the marijuana, money and jewelry was, Robles said.
When she told him they didn't have any, some of the men searched the bedrooms. All they found was her digital camera, a little bit of cash and her daughter's iPod.
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"They told us nothing was going to happen to us, but when I heard them racking the guns, I thought something was going to happen to us," Robles said, wiping tears from her eyes.
The men ran out when one of them spotted a car coming, Robles said.
As soon as her cousin stood up, Robles said they heard a single gunshot.
Thinking the shot was directed at her cousin, she screamed at her to get down again, Robles said.
Robles would later learn that single gunshot killed Brenda Arenas, a 15-year-old girl who was a week away from celebrating her quinceañera.
Thursday was the second day in the trial of two men charged with first-degree murder in Arenas' death - brothers Christian Betza Vasquez, 27, and Orel S. Vasquez, 21.
Arenas was riding in a car with her mother and 3-year-old sister when authorities say Orel Vasquez fired through the passenger window, striking the teenager in the head and killing her. Arenas and her mother had just dropped off Arenas' boyfriend, who lived in the area near South Park Avenue and Drexel Road.
The brothers and their cousin, Juan Carlos Leon, surrendered to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in January 2011.
Leon, 30, has admitted to being the getaway driver. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and burglary and is facing between seven and 42 years in prison.
Leon testified against the brothers Wednesday and Thursday, but defense attorneys Laura Udall and Sean Bruner tried to cast doubt on his credibility given his plea agreement.
Also testifying Thursday was Maria De Los Angeles Osorio-Albelaiz, the Vasquez brothers' mother.
Osorio-Albelaiz told Deputy Pima County Attorney Julie Sottosanti that although she told detectives two days after the slayings she had heard her sons planning the home invasion and that they later admitted their involvement in it and the murder, she lied.
She lied because detectives told her that if she didn't tell the truth they could put her in jail, Osorio-Albelaiz testified.
"I didn't know what to say. I didn't know how to respond, they had me all pressured," Osorio-Albelaiz said.
The truth is she hadn't seen her sons since June 2009 - two months before the incident, Osorio-Albelaiz said.
On StarNet: Follow the news and events at Pima County's courthouses in Kim Smith's blog, At the Courthouse, at go.azstarnet.com/courthouse
Contact reporter Kim Smith at 573-4241 or kimsmith@azstarnet.com
