article_snippet.sent: Where April 1995, a 24-year-old man who had been pointed out by a Southern California college student as her rapist had his truck rear-ended before he was kidnapped, brutally beaten and killed differ is on the role of now-45-year-old Gianni Van in the murder of Gonzalo Ramirez, whose blindfolded, bloodied body was found on the side of a road.
article_snippet.sent: At the opening of his trial Wednesday, prosecutors said now-45-year-old Gianni Van was enraged after now-45-year-old Gianni Van ex-girlfriend Norma Patricia Esparza told his ex-girlfriend Norma Patricia Esparza Ramirez had raped Esparza, now the mother of a little girl and his ex-girlfriend Norma Patricia Esparza must be held responsible for the attack.
article_snippet.sent: Accused: Gianni Van, 45, (left) is accused of the 1995 murder of f Gonzalo Ramirez (right), whose blindfolded, bloodied body was found on the side of an Irvine, Southern California road having suffered 30 blows with a cleaver .
article_snippet.sent: now-45-year-old Gianni Van's lawyer said Van's lawyer client had no knowledge of the plan to harm Ramirez and was threatened that Van's lawyer would suffer a similar fate if Van's lawyer snitched on a friend and friend's employee who carried out the killing.
article_snippet.sent: Prosecutors say Van killed Ramirez as revenge for raping Ramirez on-and-off girlfriend Norma Esparza (pictured).
article_snippet.sent: Van's lawyer, Jeremy Dolnick, said Shannon Gries client knew nothing of the plans to kidnap or kill Ramirez but was shown Ramirez severely beaten body strung up by chains at Tran's auto transmission shop and warned Ramirez would face the same fate if Ramirez ever snitched. '
article_snippet.sent: Ramirez didn't ask anyone to kill anyone.
article_snippet.sent: Ramirez never had homicidal thoughts of revenge,' Dolnick told jurors, adding that Van had confided in Tran about Esparza's rape and that Tran and Shannon Griestook matters into Tran and Gries  own hands.
highlights_snippet.sent: Gianni Van, now 45, is accused of kidnapping and brutally killing his then girlfriend's accused rapist while in college in Southern California in 1995 .
  