By Madison Whittemore and Kristin Trent
WOODLAND, CA – “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Malinda Collins, who in 2016 was charged with the involuntary manslaughter of Ronald Antonio.
And, after having completed her one and a half year prison sentence, Collins sat down with The Vanguard to tell her side of the story.
Collins is speaking out just after original co-accused Justin Gonzalez’s retrial found him not guilty of second degree murder in early November. While the interests of justice found Gonzalez not guilty, the 2016 murder charge continues to haunt 35 year old Collins.
Collins told The Vanguard she had a clean record before she was given the choice between a non-negotiable maximum term plea deal or the possibility of life in prison if she tried her case, and lost.
Collins claims she traded her innocence for the plea which offered the chance at her original life back after serving time.
However, what Collins did not know is that life would never go back to normal after she was convicted as a felon, insisting, “I got f**ked over really bad…My side of the story never got told.”
On the night of Aug. 30, 2016, Collins was at local Woodland park when she accepted a ride to a liquor store from her childhood friend Ruby “Morning Feather” Aradoz, someone she had not seen in “over seven years,” Collins told The Vanguard.
Collins knows Aradoz because she dated her brother in high school.
“Laughing, crying, and reminiscing” on the way to the liquor store, as Collins put it, Aradoz revealed a complicated relationship between her, her friend and the “guy she was seeing,” Alexis “Oso” Velazquez.
When Aradoz asked Collins to accompany her to confront Velazquez about their relationship in the Casa Del Sol trailer park where he lived, she obliged.
“That’s how I ended up at the trailer park, pretty much just asking for a ride to the liquor store,” Collins said.
It was at that trailer park where Collins was seen at the murder scene trying to aid the fatally injured Ronald Antonio.
Failing to locate Velazquez, Collins was directed by trailer occupant Vanessa Ramos to the street. There, “the two boys (Gonzalez and Velazquez) ran out” Collins said, adding Velazquez was yelling profanities about Aradoz as they ran in the direction of a man riding a skateboard.
Collins followed when she heard Aradoz screaming in pain.
“She had a five inch bloody gash on her arm,” Collins said, describing the significant injury that Aradoz had sustained. Aradoz believed her perpetrator to be a man biking and now known to be the uninvolved party, Ronald Antonio.
Collins described herself as going “into mom mode” and ran a lap around the area to locate him, and when she returned, she said Aradoz approached her with a “weird” look on her face.
Upon reliving the events, Collins describes the memory in real time, “Morning (Feather) is walking towards me kind of slowly; she’s got a knife in her hand.”
It is here where Collins insists Aradoz makes her admission, clearly stating, “we just stabbed somebody.”
Collins, admittedly intoxicated at the time, believes in her ability to recall the scene with clarity, and said she was deeply affected when she described finding the injured Antonio on the ground.
“Initially to me it looked like somebody was drunk and fell over…there were people there but nobody was around him,” Collins said.
Kneeling down, Collins recalls Antonio’s “labored breathing” as she cradled his head and asked bystanders to bring a towel to stop the bleeding. Collins continued to aid Antonio until she heard a woman describe her on the phone to a 911 operator.
Panicking, Collins told the woman “I’m just trying to help” and fled the scene.
Shortly thereafter, Collins accompanied Aradoz to the hospital and returned to Aradoz’s apartment around 6 a.m. to rest, just three hours before investigators knocked on Aradoz’s door and took the two in for questioning.
“At this point we didn’t know that anyone had died,” Collins said, remembering she asked Aradoz, “Why are we here? What the fuck is going on?”
After mandatory questioning that Collins described as “long” and “tiring,” she continued to participate in an additional series of “voluntary questioning sessions” after being approached by police officers on the street.
Collins describes herself as a positive person and told The Vanguard she thought to herself at the time “I’m just gonna go be helpful.”
When investigators repeatedly said to Collins “You don’t have to be here, you can leave if you want to, this is all voluntary” over five times, she recalled feeling “weird” about their intentions and left.
Placed in the lobby of the police station, Raquel Ponce identified Collins to be the woman holding Antonio’s head at the scene, the last piece of information police needed to arrest Collins as a possible suspect.
Recalling her disbelief of being arrested on her way out Collins said, “I started laughing because I thought it was a joke, like one of those punked camera shows. I have never been told what evidence they had for holding me for murder.”
While Collins stood trial in the original 2016 case, she became the public defender’s main eyewitness in the 2023 retrial of Gonzalez which resulted in his not guilty verdict in a retrial last month.
Collins was concerned about the possible implications of testifying, recalling people labeled her as a “snitch” during the original trial for voluntarily talking with investigating officers.
Despite these fears, Collins explained, “I just wanted to help Justin because I knew he was innocent…I’m glad he got justice, you can’t take away the seven years he lost, but I’m happy for him.”
Gonzalez and Collins were initially tried together before it was determined Collins was not gang affiliated and she was tried independently.
Now Collins remains with a felony conviction while Gonzalez reaped his right to a retrial because of a change in California legislation involving the natural and probable consequences doctrine he was convicted under originally.
While a key eyewitness of the 2016 trial, Aradoz expressed doubt in the validity of her own testimony because of the amount of external information she received from people and sources like security camera footage.
But, Collins remains certain of her own account, noting, “I typically don’t allow other people to influence my behaviors and thoughts.”
However, Collins emphasized Aradoz, whose testimony had the power to clear both Collins and Gonzalez, took the stand repeatedly, providing faulty information to the court.
Collins stressed, “Ruby does not have a conscience,” adding, “She literally got away with murder…Ruby should have to pay, she was the guilty one,” referencing the moment in which Collins witnessed Aradoz holding a knife in her hand and said, “we just stabbed him (Antonio).”
While Collins may have hoped to get a chance at her old life again after serving time in jail, her felon status has brought her an unforeseeable amount of hardship.
“It’s not over with, now that I’m out,” Collins said.
Forced to move out of her apartment because of rent increases in late March, Collins spoke to us on her phone from a tent near the freeway. During the virtual interview, we could see the red polyester fabric behind her and the noises of speeding cars through the speakers.
Collin’s unhoused position is something she refrains from revealing to most people.
“Being homeless in Woodland….people think of you differently…I’m embarrassed. If there was somewhere else for me to go, I would,” said Collins emotionally.
Collins says people assume that “if you didn’t want to be out here, you wouldn’t.” She remains disillusioned after trying to seek safety at Woodland shelter and finding they could not accommodate her because they had reached capacity.
Lack of housing is a symptom of Collins’ larger issue, lack of work. Well liked in the numerous roles Collins had pre-conviction, Collins was even a legal secretary at one point.
Now, trying to find her way in the job market, Collins’ numerous attempts to secure a job post-conviction have been blocked by background checks that reveal her felon status.
“It’s one thing to have theft charges against you, but when people look me up, the first thing it tells them is that I’m a murderer,” Collins said.
Describing her most recent attempt at finding a job, Collins said she was hired and within a couple days of working, “I (got) that phone call, HR said that you’re not hirable” said Collins.
Since her conviction, Collins’ already complicated relationship with her family has only gotten worse. While Collins has a limited relationship with her mother, she credits her grandparents for being a source of emotional support and for always believing in her innocence.
Unfortunately, Collin’s grandparents passed away shortly after she was incarcerated. Collins is also a mother and has lacked custodial authority to her children since she was arrested.
“At this point I still haven’t seen my children,” said Collins.
Collins explained how it is hard for her emotionally to think about what her children think of their mother. She says her children say they believe in her innocence, but she wonders deep down if they really do believe her.
“I do feel wronged…I do want justice,” exclaimed Collins.
Collins is using her wrongful conviction as a way to shed light on the many other untold stories of those who have been failed by the criminal justice system, stressing “I want to make as much noise as I can because I know that me and Justin are not the only people that have been affected by this.”
“It’s not right that they’re getting away with this,” Collins said, referring to the decisions made by the district attorney and judge as “circus court shenanigans” in the original trial.
“I think the DA and [Officer Sergio] Pimentel should be reprimanded. They didn’t care who they walked over, they didn’t care whose lives would be destroyed,” she added.
Finally, Collins stated adamantly, “I want my name cleared,” and is currently in the process of meeting with District Attorney Ron Johnson to continue the quest for her own justice.
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