Flashback Fridays – Timothy Fonseca
This story can not really be considered Echo Park history as it is still not over. Timothy Fonseca was convicted and is still serving a 35 years to life sentence for murder based on shaky evidence. But I wanted to post something about him, and this seemed like the best way to do it.
On April 23rd, 1995 at about 4:00 am, Arthur Mayer was coming back from a party with his wife, Roxana, when he stopped to buy cigarettes at the Mobil Station on Scott and Glendale. While he was walking back to the car, Mayer was shot and killed. Roxana would later state that the shot was fired by a man standing at the 1900 block of Scott Ave. She identified Fonseca in a police lineup as the shooter. This is pretty much the only evidence the police had with which to convict Fonseca. However, Roxana had identified a different man in an earlier lineup as the shooter and even admitted that he and Fonseca looked very much alike. Also, the 1900 block of Scott Avenue (where the shooter was standing) is about 300 yards away from where Roxana was sitting in the car. That’s a big distance from which to make an identification, especially when it’s dark outside. Her story also changed several times. Details that varied included the number of shooters, where they were standing and what kind of firearms they were brandishing.
Another piece of evidence was the testimony of a young Echo Park gang member who said that on the day of shooting he had seen a gang member named Sniper carrying an AK-47. He later said that “Sniper” was Tim Fonseca. When the case went to trial, the young man recanted everything he had said stating that the police officers had threatened him into making an identification. Furthermore, he did not even witness the crime.
There was never any physical evidence linking Tim Fonseca to the murder. A possible murder weapon (an SKS rifle) was found behind a house on Scott Ave. There were prints on the weapon, but they were not Tim Fonseca’s.
Tim has been in prison for fifteen years and still proclaims his innocence. He says that he was in San Bernardino on the night of the shooting. Tim’s wife, Lynn, is still fighting to free her husband. Ironically, she used to work for the Indio and Palm Springs Police Departments. His case has gained the interest of high-profile legal organizations such as the Innocence Project. In 2008, he was also written about in the AIDWC (Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted) Journal (the article is in the Spring 2008 issue). Check out Tim’s website if you’re interested in learning more.
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I was a witness in this case, I lived in the upstairs apartment on the corner. The people (and I say people because there were two people shooting) shooting had come out of the apartment directly below me. There was a long series of events that led up to this shooting– first a drive by right in front of our apartment on scott ave. A young man was shot in the leg as he was tagging the wall. I heard and saw the aftermath of this. Then everyone ran out of this apartment, shouting, and one of the things I heard very clearly was “Sniper get the AK”. So the “Sniper” moniker was a key to identifying this person. One other point– in court there was a lot of back and forth about how dark it was– but this corner was quite well lit. Scott and Glendale had lot of street lights and I KNEW this because i was watching the aftermath of the shooting, with everyone scattering (there were a lot of people there, maybe twenty guys, a girl and a dog, they ran everywhere before the police came. There were 50 to 60 rounds fired. The shooting went on for about a minute. I had an entire conversation with the 911 operator as shots were being fired. I was at that moment, face down on the floor. I will say though, that being a witness, I was only allowed to know my part of the story, but I’m writing to clarify that the “Sniper” information came from me, if not others also. Did Timothy Fonseca have an alibi? There were so many people there that night, and since one or two of the people were our neighbors — it’s very weird to me they didn’t catch more people. I also remember that there were two guns found after the shooting, they had been stashed in the unfenced back yard of the apartment building. One was a Tech 9. I heard the words “Get the AK ” but I don’t remember if the other gun was an AK. It was an incredibly traumatic thing to go through and i was sorry for everyone, especially Roxana Mayer… but of course also for the victim. But I also felt terrible for Timothy Fonseca, he was very young, I think 19 years old. I remember thinking that he did not know what he had done really. Those guys were super amped up when they came out of the apt. after the first shooting. And I want to add that just one week before this murder, they fired a huge gun off of the front steps of the building. It terrified us… we rather cluelessly wrote a note and put it in their mail box “We are very afraid, please don’t shoot off your guns.” They actually wrote a note back to us, “We are very sorry for the accident, it will not happen again.” The next week (It was Easter) Arthur Mayer was killed.
Hi Kelly I live in Australia and am married to Timothy Fonseca’s cousin. We have visited him many times and I truly believe he is innocent. He had a novice lawyer who was a friend of the family and a corrupt Rampart police dept at that time who in my opinion after reading the court documents didn’t do their job properly. You mention 50 to 60 people scattering after the shooting? No finger prints on the guns found that match Tim’s . Was the any footage from the gas station? Witness’s changing testimony and not picking him in a line up is a key point. And trying to identify someone at night from over one hundred yards , my god how a jury convicted him on this evidence is mindbogling.
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