SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The trial of four men accused of beating and stabbing 21-year-old Ryan Cunningham to death outside LaBella's Pizza in 2004 will move forward.
A judge ruled the case can proceed even as questions remain about surveillance video that was lost and is now being recovered.
Jose Roque-Garcia remains in custody, while the other three men are out on bail. They're accused of beating and stabbing Cunningham to death. For more than 20 years, the case was cold, until the men were arrested earlier this year.
Cunningham's sister reached out to ABC 10News last week, telling us her brother's decades-old case might be in jeopardy because the DA told her Chula Vista police had lost video evidence necessary for trial.
On Wednesday, the deputy district attorney said that video is now in the process of being recovered.
"It's not great quality, it's pixelated, but it is the video of the LaBella's interior lobby," Robert Eacret, the deputy district attorney, said.
The judge ordered us to blur the suspects' faces.
All four defense attorneys wanted their clients' cases dismissed, arguing that in addition to the lost, now-recovered video, Chula Vista police were negligent and either mishandled, lost, or never collected other crucial video from the scene 22 years ago.
"There were nine separate videos that lasted hours that were also lost but never even captured by or essentially secured by the police," Patrick Griffen, Roque-Garcia's attorney, said.
The judge said there is plenty of other important evidence, including an informant who identified the four men and DNA evidence, that allows the case to move forward.
Cunningham's sister was frustrated by what she heard in court about her brother's murder investigation.
"It reinforces this idea that I have that I kind of grew up with, which is that his case hadn't been solved because maybe it wasn't a priority and they just, like, they had a list of evidence that was mentioned and never obtained and that's a really hard pill to swallow," Hannah Rangel said.
"I'm relieved that the cases didn't get dismissed," Rangel said.
The trial is expected to start in February 2027.
We've reached out to Chula Vista police five times about this case and about the videos in question, and they've never responded.
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