People v. Camacho
| Citation | 14 Cal.5th 77,520 P.3d 548,301 Cal.Rptr.3d 448 |
| Decision Date | 28 November 2022 |
| Docket Number | S141080 |
| Parties | The PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. Adrian George CAMACHO, Defendant and Appellant. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court (California) |
Barry Morris, Hayward, under appointment by the Supreme Court, for Defendant and Appellant.
Kamala D. Harris and Rob Bonta, Attorneys General, Dane R. Gillette and Lance E. Winters, Chief Assistant Attorneys General, Julie L. Garland and James William Bilderback II, Assistant Attorneys General, Holly D. Wilkens, Heather F. Crawford and Robin Urbanski, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
At approximately 5:05 p.m. on June 13, 2003, uniformed Officer Tony Zeppetella of the Oceanside Police Department detained defendant Adrian Camacho in a traffic stop. By 5:09 p.m., defendant had shot the officer no fewer than 13 times, beaten him as he laid wounded but conscious on the ground, and fled the scene. Despite receiving immediate medical attention, Officer Zeppetella died en route to the hospital.
At trial, defendant did not contest that he shot and killed Officer Zeppetella. He claimed, however, that he did so during a period of delirium
and psychosis brought about by a combination of illicit substances and prescription medication he had ingested. Defendant argued that, due to the effects of the drugs, he did not possess the requisite mental state for first degree murder. ( Pen. Code, § 187, subd. (a) ; all further unspecified statutory references are to the Penal Code.) Defendant urged the jury to convict him of a lesser crime, one as lenient as involuntary manslaughter, but in any event not more severe than second degree murder.
The jury rejected defendant's argument, finding him guilty of first degree murder. ( § 189, subd. (a).) It also found true two special circumstance allegations: (1) defendant murdered Officer Zeppetella "for the purpose of avoiding or preventing a lawful arrest" ( § 190.2, subd. (a)(5) ), and (2) defendant "knew, or reasonably should have known, that the victim was a peace officer engaged in the performance of his or her duties" and intentionally killed Officer Zeppetella while he was engaged in the performance of said duties ( § 190.2, subd. (a)(7) ). The jury further found true the allegations that defendant "personally use[d] a firearm" and "personally and intentionally discharge[d] a firearm and proximately cause[d] great bodily injury" in committing the murder. ( § 12022.5, subd. (a) ; § 12022.53, subd. (d).) Finally, the jury convicted defendant of being a felon in possession of a firearm and possessing a controlled substance for sale.
At the conclusion of the penalty phase, the jury recommended a sentence of death. The court so sentenced defendant.
This is defendant's automatic appeal. We affirm the judgment in its entirety.
The shooting and killing of Officer Zeppetella occurred on a Friday afternoon in the parking lot of a Navy Federal Credit Union in Oceanside. Because that Friday was payday at a military base located close by, the credit union was busy and multiple witnesses observed and testified to the events surrounding the shooting.
Eyewitnesses testified to seeing a person later identified as defendant driving a blue Toyota. Officer Zeppetella's police vehicle had pulled into the credit union's parking lot behind the Toyota, partially blocking it. The officer then walked up to defendant, seated in the Toyota. Defendant handed the officer some sort of paperwork. The witnesses testified that the interaction seemed routine.
As the officer half turned away from defendant with the paperwork, however, defendant opened fire. Subsequent expert testimony established that defendant fired his Ruger pistol, hitting Officer Zeppetella multiple times. After a pause, defendant
and the officer began to exchange gunfire, and the officer hit defendant once in the knee.
Laura Pallos observed the incident unfolding from her vehicle. She testified that after hearing the initial gunshots, she saw an officer "stumbling ... out from between two cars." She then saw "a man," defendant,
"come out ... from between those same two cars with a gun pointing at the officer" and "shooting at him." After falling to the ground, Officer Zeppetella began "pulling himself along with his right arm." It appeared to Pallos that Officer Zeppetella was "looking for some place to crawl behind." Defendant "watch[ed] very intently" before "following" Officer Zeppetella, "taking the shortest path towards the officer." Having covered the distance to the victim, defendant "reached down," "grabbed the back of the police officer's collar," "pulled him up," then swung down with the gun held in his right arm, striking the officer on the back of the head three or four times. Defendant subsequently threw the officer "down to the asphalt."
Pallos testified that she saw defendant then "crouch[ ] down" by the officer and press "at his waist line with both hands." Testimony by other witnesses indicated that defendant had emptied his own firearm at this point, but that he found and seized Officer Zeppetella's Glock handgun, presumably when Pallos saw defendant crouched by the officer. Pallos then saw defendant backing away while maintaining focus on the officer "at all times." When defendant saw movement from the officer, he "stepped back in those two steps that he had backed up and shot him again" — this time with the officer's own handgun — "three, four" more times. "The officer stopped moving." Defendant watched the victim for a second longer, then got into the police vehicle and sped away from the scene.
Corpsman Gabriel Tellez, who specialized in "combat and combat-related trauma," was inside the credit union during the shooting. Once the shooting ceased, Tellez made his way to the parking lot and "noticed [an] officer laying on the ground face down." Based on the color and amount of the blood that "had already pooled underneath the officer," Tellez recognized that Officer Zeppetella had "a very life threatening injury." "Working as quickly as [he] possibly c[ould]," Tellez rolled the officer onto his back, got his ballistic vest off him, ascertained that blood was pulsing from a wound in his chest, and inserted his fingers into the wound to clamp off the severed artery that was bleeding. Officer Zeppetella was still alive and responsive at this stage, as he "winced in pain" when Tellez inserted his fingers in the wound. Other bystanders joined Tellez in rendering aid. An ambulance arrived. The paramedics loaded Officer Zeppetella and Tellez, whose fingers were still inside the officer's chest maintaining "a critical hold," into the ambulance. Although the paramedics continued to provide medical care during the ambulance ride, Tellez noticed "life [was] starting to ebb out of Officer Zeppetella." The officer was pronounced dead at Palomar Hospital slightly more than an hour after the shooting began.
After defendant fled the scene in Officer Zeppetella's patrol vehicle, he drove to a neighborhood where he had previously resided with his mother-in-law, Lorraine Camacho.1 Lorraine lived at a house on Via Isidro, and an eyewitness saw defendant
on foot and turning onto the street. The eyewitness, together with another individual, Doug Cosley, discovered a police car abandoned a short distance away from Via Isidro with the engine still running. The witnesses then heard through a radio transmitting from the vehicle that "there was an officer down and a car and weapons missing." Thinking that the missing police vehicle was the one they were standing next to, Cosley used the radio to report the car's location.
Police officers arrived soon after and followed what appeared to be blood stains leading to Lorraine's residence. Surmising that defendant had isolated himself inside, law enforcement personnel spent the next few hours securing the area and evacuating nearby residents. By approximately 9:00 p.m., a SWAT team led by Sergeant Thomas Aguigui was ready to make contact with defendant.
Aguigui testified that he communicated with defendant via a bullhorn. After Aguigui established rapport, defendant told the sergeant that he was scared, he had cut his wrists, and he did not want to come out of the house for fear of the police. Defendant also asked if "the officer died," to which Aguigui replied that he did not know. Aguigui reassured defendant that "it was safe for him to come out" and that "medical attention [would be given] to his injuries." Defendant agreed to exit the residence. Defendant then followed Aguigui's directions, turned on the porch light, stepped out, dropped a piece of cloth that he had in his hand when directed to do so, and walked to the officers. After the SWAT team placed handcuffs on defendant, he was turned over to medics for first aid. When he was on the gurney, defendant volunteered that he did not " ‘know what that officer did to make [him] snap.’ " Based on his interaction with defendant, Aguigui testified that although defendant was "in some significant amount of pain," he was "coherent" and able to understand the instructions given to him.
Aguigui's observations of defendant's demeanor were echoed by medical personnel who treated defendant that night. Timothy Huerta, one of the paramedics who transported defendant to the hospital, testified he and his partner undertook an initial assessment of defendant at 9:41 p.m. after defendant walked out of the house on Via Isidro. Defendant was "alert," "cooperative," able to relay date, time, and location as well as "his age, his weight, whether or not he was in pain, which he said he wasn't, and where he had been shot." In communicating all this information, defendant's speech was "normal and...
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