fellow thug killer is on death row
By Jim Forsyth
Thursday, July 17, 2008
A pimply faced dork named Jose Najera today pled guilty to reduced charges in connection with the murder of Taco Land club owner Ram Ayala and a patron of the Josephine Street night spot and was sentenced to fifty years in prison, 1200 WOAI news reports.
The plea agreement came as this loser Najera, 31, was set to go on trial on charges that he and another man named Joseph Gamboa shot and killed Ayala, 72, and a Taco Land regular and sometime doorman, "Gypsy Doug" Morgan, 54, in June of 2005. They were killed the night the Spurs beat the Detroit Pistons to win their third NBA title.
Ayala was one of the most prominent supporters of local music ever in San Antonio, frequently using Taco Land to showcase emerging talent and working with the musicians to begin their careers and obtain record deals. "Taco Land," which was written in honor of the bar, was even the title of a song by the regional group "The Dead Milkmen."
Gamboa was convicted of capital murder in the rampage, which also left a female bartender critically wounded, in a trial in 2007 and was sentenced to death. Witnesses testified at Gamboa's trial that he was a multiple felon with raps for burglary, escape, and weapons possession.
Covering San Antonio's music scene since 2005