Jury finds murder in nightclub killing

A 29-year-old Tucson man was convicted of second-degree murder Wednesday in the shooting death of a man outside the Bum Steer nightclub.

More than 250 people were gathered in the parking lot of the club, 1910 N. Stone Ave., on June 12, 2005, when several fights broke out for unknown reasons, according to court testimony.

Francisco Arriaga, 25, was shot in the chest with a 9 mm gun and a second shot hit him in the right forearm and then traveled into his chest.

After police received a tip that Vernon Bullock Jr. was the shooter, prosecutor Lewis Brandes said forensic experts discovered Bullock's DNA on a gun found at the scene and proved the gun was the one used in the shooting.

Bullock was facing a first-degree murder charge, but his attorneys, Michael Rosenbluth and Monique Lyon, argued that Bullock fired the gun in self-defense after a bullet from an unknown person's gun passed through his pant leg from behind. They said he simply wheeled and fired indiscriminately.

"He reacted to a threat, to a deadly threat," Rosenbluth told jurors during closing arguments Tuesday.

No one has come forward to say they saw Arriaga during the melee, although a friend did say he was speaking to him on his cell phone at the time of the shooting, Rosenbluth said.

"We don't know what he was doing in the area of the fight," Rosenbluth said. "We don't know if he was a participant or an observant."

Bullock didn't even know his bullets had struck anyone, Rosenbluth said.

Brandes argued that not only did Bullock know he shot someone, it was premeditated, first-degree murder.

When someone intentionally shoots at someone, they aim for "center mass" and Arriaga was shot in the chest twice. The fact one of the shots struck his forearm first is consistent with someone holding a cell phone to their ear, Brandes said.

The fact that gunpowder was found on Arriaga proves the shooter was within four feet and there is no way the shooter could not have seen his victim, Brandes said.

If Bullock didn't know he'd shot someone, why did he run away and throw the gun over a nearby wall? Brandes asked the jury.

Bullock was arrested three months after the shooting and told authorities he'd thrown away the pants he was wearing that night, Brandes said.

The jury either didn't believe the state proved "beyond a reasonable doubt" that Arriaga's death was premeditated or they thought Bullock's actions weren't premeditated.

A person can be convicted of second-degree murder under three circumstances. The jury can find the person intentionally caused the death of another person or they can find that the defendant knew their conduct could cause the death of another and acted anyway.

Lastly, the jury can find that "under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life, the person recklessly engaged in conduct that created a grave risk of death and thereby caused the death of another person."

Bullock is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 18 by Judge Hector Campoy of Pima County Superior Court.

Because Bullock, a convicted armed robber, was on parole at the time of the shooting, he is facing between 16 and 22 years in prison instead of the normal 10 to 22 years.