Defense: Man charged in triple murder not a killer

BOISE (AP) - A man charged with murdering his girlfriend and her two young sons fled from Idaho in 2002 but is not a killer, his attorney said at the start of his trial.

Suspect Jorge Alberto Lopez-Orozco left Idaho because he was in this country illegally and someone shot at his car, lawyer Terry Ratliff told an Elmore County jury Monday.

The shooter may have been the same person who killed Rebecca Ramirez and her two sons, ages 4 and 2, Ratliff said.

Lopez-Orozco has pleaded not guilty to three counts of first-degree murder.

The FBI had listed him as one of its most-wanted felons in 2002 after fishermen discovered the abandoned, burned-out shell of a car he had been driving near the Snake River in a remote part of southern Idaho.

The charred remains of Ramirez and her children were found inside, and investigators later determined they had been shot in the head or chest.

Lopez-Orozco was captured in 2009, as he delivered metal to a Mexican scrapyard, then extradited to Idaho in 2011. Mexico's policy is not to extradite suspects who might face execution, so prosecutors agreed not to pursue the death penalty in the case.

"Jorge is an undocumented alien who has no right to be here, and that is the reason he left, aside from being shot at," Ratliff told the jury.

Prosecutors say Lopez-Orozco killed Ramirez and the two boys because Ramirez had discovered he was married and planned to leave him for another man.

Elmore County Deputy Prosecutor Lee Fisher said he believes Lopez-Orozco also suspected Ramirez of stealing methamphetamine and money from him. Two of his family members will testify that he indicated he killed Ramirez and her children, Fisher said.

"Jorge Orozco had the motive, means and opportunity to commit these crimes," Fisher said.

Prosecutors called several witnesses to the stand, including Ramirez' surviving children, 18-year-old Noemi Ramirez and 16-year-old David Ramirez.

Noemi Ramirez wiped away tears as she described being in the car with her mom, brothers and Lopez-Orozco - whom she knew as "Pepe" - on the morning of July 30, 2002, It was the last time she saw the family members.

She said she changed her mind that morning and decided to instead stay at her grandfather's house in Nyssa, Ore.

She said she was expecting her mom to come back.

"She just wouldn't leave us there," she said.

Lopez-Orozco, dressed in a tan shirt and black pants, maintained a stoic, blank-faced demeanor during testimony that was translated into Spanish for him.

The trial could last several weeks. If convicted, Lopez-Orozco could face life in prison.