OAKLAND — With the start of his jury trial just days away, a 25-year-old Bay Area man accepted a plea deal required him to admit fault for the Fremont police killing of 16-year-old Elena Mondragon, as well as an earlier, unrelated fatal crash in Oakland.
Rico Tiger pleaded no contest on Dec. 11 to attempted murder and assault on peace officers, robbery, and two vehicular manslaughter counts — one for Mondragon, who was killed by officers as Tiger reportedly rammed a police van with a stolen BMW, and a second for Cristel Antunez-Ayala, who was killed in a vehicle crash at Bancroft and 90th Avenues in Oakland after Tiger allegedly ran a red light at high speeds after an Oakland officer spotted him driving by.
On Jan 10, 2024, Tiger is scheduled to be formally sentenced to 17 years in state prison.
Last year, a federal civil jury awarded $21 million to Mondragon’s family, holding Tiger 51 percent liable for her death and three involved Fremont officers 49 percent liable, split three ways. Sgt. Jeremy Miskella, who fired the shot that killed Mondragon, was found 25 percent responsible, while Officer Joel Hernandez, who also fired his weapon, was found 12 percent responsible. A third officer present during the incident, Ghailan Chahouati, was found 12 percent responsible as well.
Tiger was initially charged with murdering Mondragon. At his 2022 preliminary hearing last year, Chahouati testified the officers were attempting to arrest Tiger for a “particularly heinous” string of robberies, which involved suspects blocking victims in with their cars, taking their registrations or drivers licenses, and threatening to come to their homes if they cooperated with police.
On March 14, 2017, they tracked the stolen BMW in Tiger’s possession to the City View Apartment complex in Hayward. The officers cornered the vehicle, which revved its engines and rammed a police van, Chahouati testified, adding that he believed in that moment he was going to be killed.
“I was petrified,” he said on the witness stand. “I was very confident and believed that I was going to die or get seriously injured, even after I dove into the van.”
The car contained Mondragon, Tiger, and a third man who later told police that Tiger warned the occupants to duck down because they had guns.
“I can’t do this,” Mondragon reportedly said moments before she was killed by police. After the shooting, police testified they learned that she was pregnant with Tiger’s child. Tiger’s lawyer argued at the preliminary hearing that “discrepancies” in the officers testimony should raise doubts about exactly what transpired.
During the civil trial, attorneys for Mondragon’s family argued the officers were reckless and specifically that Miskella was out of harm’s way when he fired the shots. At the preliminary hearing, Judge James Cramer reached a slightly different conclusion, dismissing counts of attempted murder that named Hernandez and Chahouati as victims, but upholding the attempted murder of Miskella charge.
Cramer said it appeared to him that Tiger was trying to escape police capture, not kill Hernandez or Chahouati, but that he couldn’t say the same about Miskella.
“Perhaps it was because Sgt. Miskella was there holding a long gun, and he thought, ‘If I don’t kill this guy he’s going to kill me,’” Cramer said. “I don’t need to weigh his motive.”