Opinion ID: 6348938
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Events Leading Up to the Shooting

Text: Watkins owned a blue Lincoln Mark VIII and frequented the Elks Lodge, a private club on Mill Street in New Bedford, Massachusetts.3 Watkins, Coombs, and Rudolph were all at the Elks Lodge on April 25, 2003. Watkins, who was inside the Lodge, was heard loudly arguing on the phone with Coombs, who was seen outside the club frisking people who were attempting to enter. Rudolph, who was also inside the club at the time, suggested to Watkins that he should go outside and fight Coombs. Watkins declined and stayed inside the Elks Lodge until Coombs left for the night. The jury heard the testimony of Coombs's then- girlfriend, Jessica Bronson, that the next morning, April 26, 2003, 3 Officer Brian Safioleas of the New Bedford Police testified he had seen Watkins driving a blue Lincoln Mark VIII prior to the evening of April 26, 2003; Erin Depina testified that she had registered a blue Lincoln Mark VIII in her name for Watkins and that the car belonged to him; and Paul Tomasik, the landlord of Watkins's girlfriend, testified that he had taken a picture the morning of April 26, 2003 of a Lincoln Mark VIII parked in the girlfriends' driveway. - 6 - Coombs told Bronson he wanted to whoop [Watkins's] ass. That afternoon, Watkins returned to the Elks Lodge. The then-bartender testified that Watkins seemed upset and told the bartender he was tired of people F'ing with him. Watkins went back to the Elks Lodge that evening, that time acting tough and saying to Rudolph that [t]hings are going to change around here. John Gilbert, a doorman at the Elks Lodge in April 2003, testified that he saw Watkins leave the club sometime after 9:30 p.m., and after that, Gilbert saw police lights in the area. Gilbert stated that Watkins was wearing dark clothing that night. Bronson testified that Coombs had called her at approximately 9:45 or 9:47 p.m. on April 26, to tell her he was on his way home. At the end of the call, Bronson heard Coombs shout to a third party, Why don't you fight me now? Bronson heard nothing from Coombs after that, and learned fifteen to twenty minutes later that Coombs had been shot. The jury also heard the testimony of New Bedford Police Officer Bryan Safioleas, who was on duty from 3:30 to 11:30 p.m. on April 26, 2003. Officer Safioleas had been parked near the intersection of Mill and Cedar Streets -- just one block west of the Elks Lodge -- until approximately 9:40 p.m. that night.4 He 4 Mill Street, on which the victim was standing at the time of the shooting, runs perpendicular to Cedar Street, which is a one-way street . . . . There is a stop sign on Cedar Street at - 7 - testified that it was a very rainy night. In the ten minutes before he left the area, he had observed a blue Lincoln Mark VIII drive past him on a couple of occasions. Officer Safioleas testified that he had seen that vehicle prior to April 26 in the Elks Lodge parking lot with Watkins inside it. The jury would later hear further testimony that Watkins drove a blue Lincoln Mark VIII. The officer testified that he began to head westbound down Mill Street at around 9:40 p.m. but he was quickly called back to his post at approximately 9:53 p.m. due to a call for units to respond to Kempton and Cedar Street for reported shots fired.5 The dispatch instructed Officer Safioleas to look for a dark-colored Lincoln Mark VIII.6