MCMINNVILLE, Ore. (KOIN) — For 15 years, the newspaper clippings chronicling every step of the three-year trial remained inside a box in the Pizano family home.
Eventually, Juana figured she’d make a scrapbook out of them. On Tuesday, she brought the clippings out, using them to cover every corner of the family’s living room table.
“I never imagined taking these articles out because we were going to talk about it in court,” Juana said.
But now, 15 years later, that’s exactly what Juana had to do. On Thursday, Juana, her brother, Edgar, and the rest of the Pizano family will head to court as Rafeal Mora-Contreras — one of two men sentenced to life sentences for the brutal murder of Juana and Edgar’s brother, Gonzalo — faces the first steps of a retrial.
“I’m going to an arraignment for man that murdered my brother 18 years ago,”Juana said. “18 years ago — and we’re starting all over?”
The Pizanos, having to relive the details of their brother’s murder, are now left wondering how the appeal process got to this point without them knowing.
“We’re the voice for Gonzalo,” Juana said, “and no one gave us the opporutnity.”
The newspaper clippings tell a tale where the details hang on the edge of unbelievable.
“A judge said he had never, in his history being a judge, witnessed or seen anything like that,” Juana said of her brother’s murder. “More so because the way my brother was killed.”
In 2000, engaged and ready to settle down, Gonzalo was kidnapped by Mora-Contreras and David Noble. They burned his car and took him to Hagg Lake. There, they stabbed him in the heart and shot him. Before he died, they slit his throat. “To stop the gargling noise,” Juana said.
Gonzalo was ready to settle down and start a family, but he never got the chance.
“The reason of my brother’s death was so the wedding would not carry out,” Juana said.
Once the trial had finished, and Mora-Contreras and Noble were convicted, the family took the newspaper clippings and stowed them away.
“We moved on; I moved on,” Juana said. “Our family healed. We forgave.”
But now the judicial process has brought them back. Mora-Contreras was granted a retrial after he and his counsel pointed out he was restrained in court by a stunt belt, a use that’s been recently curbed. They also showed he was tried at the same time as Noble instead of separately — enough to be awarded a retrial.
The Pizanos never heard about this appeal process until recently.
“Why did you do this?” Edgar questioned. “Why did you not take us into consideration? So now we have those questions and no answers.”
“It blows my mind,” Juana said. “I’m still trying to comprehend.”
KOIN 6 News reached out to the Attorney General’s Office on Tuesday, hoping to get an answer to Edgar’s questions. The office hasn’t responded.
Regardless, Juana and Edgar are ready to be a voice in court once again.
“The reason why we want to speak up and we want our voices heard is so this doesn’t happen to any other family,” Juana said.