MURRIETA – A 29-year-old Good Hope man who spent more than a year on the lam in Mexico while being sought on a murder charge in Riverside County argued with the victim minutes before gunshots rang out at the end of a night of partying, a witness testified Tuesday.

Jonathan Ruiz took the stand on the first day of trial for Balerio Millan Lizarraga, who is accused of fatally shooting Ricardo Lopez about midnight on Jan. 7, 2006, outside a home on F Street in Perris.

Lizarraga was brought back to Riverside County in April 2007 – the first fugitive to be extradited to Riverside County from Mexico – after spending about 15 months in that country.

He was found working on a ranch in the state of Sinaloa, according to authorities.

Lizarraga faces at least 45 years to life in prison if convicted of charges of murder, robbery and sentence-enhancing allegations of use of a firearm and discharging a firearm causing great bodily injury, said Deputy District Attorney Burke Strunsky.

Ruiz testified that he had been drinking with friends, including the victim and the defendant, all afternoon and into the night of Jan. 7, 2006, in his home when an argument broke out between Lizarraga and Lopez in the front yard.

Ruiz said he did not know the reason for the disagreement.

“Frankly, I don't know, but they were arguing,” Ruiz said.

He said that earlier in the evening, Lizarraga had taken a 9mm pistol from his waistband and showed it to the men.

When he heard the arguing, Ruiz said he stepped outside to tell the men to “calm down” because his father was ill and asleep in the house.

“When I went back to the house a few minutes later, I heard the gunshots,” Ruiz said, adding that he assumed the gun had been fired into the air.

A few minutes later, one of the other men ran in to say that Lizarraga “just did in Richard,” Ruiz testified.

Ruiz said he sent that man to the sheriff's station while he went to another home up the street.

Defense Attorney Dario Bejarano asked Ruiz why he left the scene and didn't stay to help his friend and roommate. The witness responded that he doesn't like to see dead or dying people.

“He (Lopez) was agonizing already,” Ruiz responded. “I don't like that.”

Another witness, who like Ruiz testified via an interpreter, said that during the drinking bout, Lizarraga had taken out his gun and the magazine, dropping the bullets to the floor of the house.

Robert Miranda said he scooped them up from the floor, but Lizarraga told him never to do that, and wiped them off on his shirt.

In addition to drinking, the men had all done a line of crystal methamphetamine, according to Miranda, who also testified that most of the men went to a party that night but he stayed home.

The other men returned about an hour later, and something did not feel right, Miranda said.

“It seemed to me that it was too soon to come home from the party. I saw that Balerio was a bit angry,” Miranda said, adding that Lopez seemed “sad.”