Jose Beltran, the Silver Lake resident alleged to have shot a pizza deliveryman, will stand trial.
A judge decided that there was enough evidence to go forward at a hearing Monday.
Beltran, an alleged gang member, was already in custody after an arrest on Aug. 19 on suspicion of driving with a loaded firearm found after police pulled him over on a traffic violation.
He will be arraigned on Jan. 24 deputy district attorney Amy Ashvanian confirmed Wednesday.
Beltran lived with his mother about a half a mile away and attended John Marshall High School.
Detectives said in September that Beltran chased Loma through the Silver Lake hills in his car before shooting him in the face on Silver Lake Boulevard.
City News Service reported Tuesday that a key witness at the hearing said she lied to Northeast division detective Jose Carillo when she implicated Beltran.
She said Roger May, another member of Beltran's gang, shot Loma.
According to City News Service:
She said she initially pointed the finger at Beltran because May's
relatives had threatened her not to tell the truth or ``something was going to happen to me or my family.'' Deputy District Attorney Amy Ashvanian, however, questioned her claim, asking why she would frame Beltran, another alleged member of the very same gang, if she was afraid of being harmed by May. May``could order my whole family to be killed,'' Villeda replied. "I didn't want that.''
But two other witnesses who were in the car with Loma confirmed that Beltran drove the car that passed them at an intersection several blocks away from the shoting.
The 25-year-old Loma worked at El Chavo restaurant on Sunset and did a late shift down the street as a pizza deliveryman at Garage Pizza.
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