The 25-year-old Colombian man who is trying to withdraw his guilty plea in the 2022 murder of 73-year-old Gary Ruby, along with stealing his Hawaii Loa Ridge house, car and identity, testified Friday concerning the reasons his mother hired attorney Myles Breiner to represent him.

Deputy Prosecutor Scott Bell questioned Juan Baron on whether Breiner and his associate, Kyle Dowd, told him they were hired to attempt to suppress the March 10, 2022, confession he gave to Los Angeles Police Department detectives.

Baron said, through a Spanish-language interpreter, that was part of the reason they were hired.

“Isn’t it true it was to attempt a plea negotiation for you in this case?” Bell asked.

Baron replied, “No, it wasn’t the final decision.”

“Isn’t it true they told you they were never hired to actually take the case to trial?” Bell asked.

Baron said, “No.”

Baron’s court-appointed attorney, Randall Hironaka, took over the case after Breiner withdrew as counsel. Hironaka brought before Judge Catherine Remigio the motion to withdraw Baron’s guilty plea on the day he was to be sentenced. However, that hearing had to be continued to Oct. 7 because the interpreter being used that day was a potential witness in the case. Then on Oct. 7 the hearing had to be continued to Friday because time ran out.

On Friday the hearing had to be continued again after Hiro­naka raised issues of possible violations of attorney-client privileged information being leaked to the state by Breiner’s office.

That, the judge said, would be a violation of the court’s order.

Hironaka said during Friday’s hearing that the copy of an Oct. 17, 2023, plea offer letter from Breiner to the state, which was being used as an exhibit by Bell, was not the one that he sent to Deputy Prosecutor Ayla Weiss.

Weiss had demanded a copy of the letter at the Oct. 7 hearing, and Hironaka said he would comply. Weiss was not present Friday because she is now on maternity leave.

Bell said Breiner gave the letter to the prosecution Thursday.

The judge asked Hironaka, “You are concerned Mr. Breiner is having conversations with the state which is violating the court’s order? There was a stipulation that the confidentiality of the letter was waived. You’re thinking they might be talking about things outside the letter?”

Hironaka said Weiss had been and still may be having conversations with Breiner and Dowd, and had asked whether she could speak to his prior attorneys.

Remigio pointed out the larger issue: “If the case goes to trial, what information do prosecutors have?”

Bell countered by saying that the issue of the letter was “only sprung on the state Oct. 7,” and Weiss was previously unaware of the letter.

In the previous hearing on Oct. 7, Baron told the court Spanish was his first language, and Breiner and Dowd did not have a Spanish-language interpreter to help him understand the plea deal.

Baron alleged that Breiner told him he would die in prison if he did not take the deal.

He testified Oct. 7 he thought he would be executed in an electric chair if he did not take the plea deal, and said he didn’t know Hawaii did not have the death penalty. When asked Friday whether his former attorneys ever told him Hawaii had the death penalty or the electric chair, he said no.

The plea agreement meant Baron would admit to the crimes in exchange for the state not asking the court for extended sentencing. An extended sentence would have meant life without the possibility of parole.

Bell attempted to discredit Baron regarding various aspects of his Oct. 7 testimony. During that testimony Baron denied knowing that Breiner and Dowd were in plea negotiations with Weiss as far back as October 2023, which was documented by the letter.

Bell questioned Baron on whether Dowd and Breiner told him that the motion filed to dismiss the case was done to gain leverage in plea negotiations.

“No, they told me of what the prosecutor had done,” Baron said, referring to the first deputy prosecutor on the case showing photos of the victim to members of the public, referring to “predators” and “lonely adults.”

Bell asked whether the motion to dismiss requested to dismiss the entire case, to disqualify the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney and to disqualify the original deputy prosecutor.

Baron answered, “Correct,” to each point.

Bell asked whether Dowd and/or Breiner ever told him it was unlikely the court was going to dismiss the entire case.

“Only when they showed me the deal,” he said.