Man believed to have killed wife, son, self aided in 1977 case.
Posted at 05:14 PM on Thursday, Jul. 15, 2010
By Pablo Lopez / The Fresno Bee
The Fresno man suspected of killing his estranged wife and 20-year-old son Tuesday and then committing suicide helped Fresno County sheriff's detectives solve the 1977 killings of two girls, a sheriff's spokesman said Thursday afternoon.
Robert Alfred Acuna was detained in 1994 in connection with the stabbing death of Belinda Hernandez, 12, and Connie Ostos, 13, but he was never charged, deputy Chris Curtice said. Curtice, a former homicide detective, said Acuna provided key statements against Ernest Marin Jr., who pleaded guilty to murdering the girls. Marin was sentenced to life in prison.
Acuna, who has no criminal record, stayed out of the spotlight until Tuesday, when police said he went to his estranged wife's apartment in northwest Fresno and shot Gloria Acuna and their son Steven before turning the gun on himself.
Robert Acuna, 51, had been separated from Gloria Acuna, 50, for a little more than a year. He was a school-bus driver for Central Unified School District, his neighbors said.
Curtice said Thursday he was shocked to hear the news.
"I remember seeing him with his wife and son at the fair in the 1990s," Curtice said. "They were happy and excited about their son singing and dancing."
They were talking about taking him to Los Angeles to try out in competitions, he said.
In 1977, a much younger Robert Acuna was involved in one of Fresno's most horrific cases. He helped Marin dump the bodies near Pine Flat Dam after being threatened, Curtice recalled.
Sheriff's officials say Belinda and Connie were the girlfriends of two of Marin's sons.
In February 1977, the two girls were stabbed to death in Marin's home on Effie Street in Fresno. The girls' bodies were found three weeks later, according to sheriff's reports.
The elder Marin originally had been a suspect in the murders -- blood that matched Belinda's was found in his home -- but he wasn't arrested until 1994 after relatives came forward with new information, sheriff's officials said.
At a court hearing in December 1994, Curtice testified about how the bodies were left in the woods, relating an account he received from Acuna.
According to Curtice, Acuna said the elder Marin came to a body shop where his son Ernest Marin III worked. Acuna, a friend of the younger Marin, also was there.
The three drove to the elder Marin's home, and the Marins put the girls' bodies in the trunk of the younger Marin's car, Curtice said. The three drove to the foothills near Pine Flat Reservoir.
According to Acuna, Curtice said, Acuna helped take one of the bodies out of the trunk. He said the Marins dragged the bodies to the woods along Trimmer Springs Road, where the bodies later were found. The three returned to Fresno and steam-cleaned the trunk of the car at a car wash.
The elder Marin threatened Acuna, Curtice said, saying something like, "You better not say anything because you are into this as much as we are. You touched the bodies."
"He was just a kid back then," Curtice said. "But he helped us. He was very cooperative."
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