Opinion ID: 2387024
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Attempted murders outside Vons market

Text: On May 31, 1994, James Shahbakhti was working as a uniformed but unarmed officer for a private security company. He testified that at approximately 10:40 p.m., his dispatcher requested that he respond to a report of a transient harassing customers at a Vons market in the City of Orange. When he arrived at the shopping center in which Vons was located, a person who appeared to be a transient attracted his attention. The individual was approximately 70 or 80 yards from Vons, near a karate studio situated to the right of Vons and the Sav-on drugstore. Shahbakhti testified that he drove his marked security vehicle past the individual and circled around, to give himself an opportunity to observe the individual and to request the assistance of another private security officer. He then left his vehicle and approached the individual, who, at this point in time, was in the front of the Vons market. Shahbakhti testified that he asked the man what he was doing there and, when the man did not respond, asked him for identification. The man replied that he did not have any identification, and that he would leave the area. Shahbakhti then asked the man to remain where he was. Chris Weidmann, who was Shahbakhti's backup private security officer and also unarmed, arrived at the scene in a marked patrol vehicle. Shahbakhti testified that as Weidmann exited from his vehicle, the man removed a gun from his jacket pocket and pointed it at Shahbakhti's face. Shahbakhti estimated that he and the man were standing two to three feet apart, and he testified that he could see the man's face clearly. Shahbakhti next recalled seeing Weidmann running toward Shahbakhti's vehicle, and then seeing the man fire one or two shots at the vehicle, from which Weidmann was attempting to retrieve a cellular telephone. Shahbakhti further testified that as the man fired at Weidmann, Shahbakhti began running away from the man. As he ran, he heard three to five more shots and was struck in the back. Shahbakhti also testified that the bullet entered his shoulder muscle, hit a bone, tore cartilage, collapsed one of his lungs, and hit his clavicle. The next day, Shahbakhti was interviewed by Detective Michael Harper of the Orange Police Department, who showed him the same photographic lineup viewed by Bugbee. (See, ante, fn. 2.) Shahbakhti testified that one of the six photographs looked just pretty much like who the individual was. He confirmed that he told Harper I can't be one hundred percent, but I'd say number three, and he was 90 to 95 percent sure that the third photograph was of the man he encountered at the Vons market. Shahbakhti also confirmed that the man wore a dark blue hooded sweatshirt with a front zipper, a black or navy blue watch cap, blue jeans, and what appeared to be a woman's dark-colored shoulder-length wig. Finally, he testified that the man's weapon was a chrome semiautomatic handgun. Chris Weidmann testified that as he approached Shahbakhti and the man with whom Shahbakhti was speaking, he heard the man state that he was leaving, and Shahbakhti telling the man that he needed some information from him. Weidmann walked around a large pillar in front of the Vons market as he approached them, and encountered the man as the man walked around the pillar. Weidmann could not see Shahbakhti, who was behind the pillar, and did not see the man's gun until the man pointed it at Weidmann's forehead. Weidmann recounted that he raised his hands and said to the man, you're the boss, and the man then lowered his gun and turned back toward Shahbakhti. Weidmann testified that he then ran to Shahbakhti's vehicle, because it had a cellular telephone inside. After Weidmann entered 911 and pressed the send button, he looked up and saw the man standing by the passenger side of the vehicle, pointing his gun at Weidmann's head. Weidmann testified that the man rapidly fired three shots, all of which struck the vehicle occupied by Weidmann. Weidmann explained that when he felt broken glass from the windshield strike his face, he grabbed his face to make it appear that he had been hit by gunfire, rolled out of the vehicle, and pretended to be dead. He testified that he heard four additional shots from the same gun but, until the man fled, he was unaware Shahbakhti had been shot. Weidmann testified that he was unable to identify in photographs the man who shot at him, but confirmed that the man was wearing a woman's brown shoulder-length wig and a blue or purple hooded sweatshirt. He described the man's gun as a chrome nickel-plated automatic weapon that he thought to be a nine-millimeter firearm. Joseph Loya testified that on May 31, 1994, at 10:45 p.m., he was parking his vehicle approximately 100 yards from the back parking lot of the Vons market when he saw a man wearing dark clothing and a zippered sweatshirt with a hood jog out of an alley. The man stopped next to what appeared to Loya to be a light blue 1984 Ford Tempo. Loya testified that the man removed a mask, or perhaps a hat and a wig, exposing a white face and clean-shaven head. The man then entered the light-blue vehicle and departed, driving in a normal manner. Loya followed the man's vehicle in his own vehicle, and recorded the vehicle's license plate number. Loya followed the vehicle for approximately three minutes, during which time the man began speeding and driving erratically, and then Loya contacted the Orange Police Department and reported what he had witnessed. Detective Harper testified that the vehicle with the license plate number provided by Loya was a blue Mercury Topaz, which is basically the same model as a Ford Tempo, and that the vehicle was registered to defendant. Harper testified that he requested the Fullerton Police Department to look for defendant at an apartment complex in the City of Fullerton. Linda King, a police officer with the City of Fullerton, testified that at approximately 1:00 a.m. on June 1, 1994, she received a request to travel to an address on Deer Park Avenue in the City of Fullerton with the objective of locating defendant's vehicle. She recalled that as she was driving on Deer Park Avenue, she saw a white male exit from a driveway, cross behind her patrol unit, and walk into the apartment complex across the street. She made eye contact with the individual and kept driving. After approximately five minutes, she saw in a carport a vehicle bearing the license plate number she had been provided. Thereafter, she was shown a photograph of defendant, and recognized him as the person who had crossed the street as she drove on Deer Park Avenue. King testified that police officers then approached defendant's apartment and observed that the door was open, all the lights were on, and defendant was not present. Thereafter, Detective Harper searched defendant's apartment. Harper testified that he collected various items, including a brown wig and two live rounds of ammunition for a .380-caliber pistol. He confirmed that a.380-caliber weapon had been used to shoot Shahbakhti, and that the ammunition found in defendant's apartment was of the same type and brand as was found at the Vons market. Harper explained that he also was investigating the robbery of Dean Bugbee, and collected evidence that he thought might be related to that crime, including a blue baseball-type cap. He also found two empty boxes, each of which previously had held a laser sight designed to be attached to a firearm, and receipts for two magazines for a .380-caliber handgun. Finally, in the blue Mercury Topaz that King located in a carport at the apartment complex, Harper found a watch cap and a bill of sale for the vehicle, listing defendant as the purchaser.