The man charged with shooting two sleeping girls failed to get his $250,000 bond reduced Friday after a Denver prosecutor said he believed the man was a gang member sworn to a life of crime.
The two girls, Celine Venzor, 7, and Kenia Venzor, 12, were innocent victims of a failed effort at revenge plotted by Terra Ramirez, 19, and unsuccessfully carried out by the purported gang member, Andreas “Andy” Rubio, prosecutor David Lamb told Judge Alfred Harrell.
The intended victim lived on the same street as the two children. But as he ran up the street firing his weapon, Rubio, 20, hit two houses and a car that had nothing to do with the target, severely injuring the girls and causing a man in a second home to be injured by flying glass, Lamb said.
“This is an incredibly senseless and incredibly calculated crime,” Lamb told Harrell.
He said Ramirez purposely sought out Rubio to “do her dirty work” in settling a minor spat.
Lamb said that Ramirez, Rubio and Rubio’s girlfriend, Natalie McFarlane, 19, were equally culpable.
Ramirez hatched the plot and the two others willingly joined in, he said. McFarlane drove Rubio and followed Ramirez, who pointed the way. McFarlane waited as the getaway driver.
Attorneys for the defendants argued for the bond reduction.
Nick Avila, the defense attorney for Rubio, said the factor favoring a reduction in Rubio’s bond was that Rubio turned himself in to police. The defense also argued that Ramirez had no prior criminal record and that McFarlane wasn’t involved.
Harrell reduced the bonds of Ramirez and McFarlane from $250,000 to $100,000. The judge ordered a preliminary hearing for the trio for Oct. 21.
The shootings took place Aug. 21 in the 100 block of Osceola Street.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
