How to resolve AdBlock issue? LAKEPORT, Calif. – Testimony in the trial of two young men who are alleged to have shot to death a 4-year-old child and wounded five others continued on Wednesday, with the witnesses describing events that led up to the deadly incident.
Paul William Braden, 22, and Orlando Joseph Lopez, 24, stand accused of shooting into a crowd of people at a gathering at the Lakeshore Drive home in Clearlake of Ross Sparks and Desiree Kirby on the night of June 18, 2011.
The shooting killed Kirby’s son, Skyler Rapp, and left her with wounds that resulted in permanent disabilities.
Also wounded in the shooting were Ross Sparks, his brother Andrew Sparks, and friends Ian Griffith and Joseph Armijo.
Braden and Lopez each face the possibility of multiple life sentences if they’re convicted.
Judge Doris Shockley of Yolo County is presiding over the proceedings, which so far have moved slowly, partly resulting from the lengthy jury selection process – which started at the end of January – to impanel two juries, one for Braden and one for Lopez.
Testimony began at the end of last month, but that, too, has moved slowly because of delays related to complex procedural issues, court furlough days, holidays and the illness earlier this month of Lopez’s defense attorney, Stephen Carter. Attorney Doug Rhoades is representing Braden.
By day’s end on Wednesday, the fourth prosecution witness – Anthony Gaston – had just taken the stand.
Those who have testified so far include Janet Leonor, at whose Clearlake home Braden and Lopez were reported to have been in the afternoon and evening hours of June 18, 2011, before the shooting; her great-granddaughter, Ashli Athas, who lived with Leonor along with then-boyfriend Leonardo Lopez, Orlando Lopez’s younger brother; and Dennis Fry, Gaston’s younger brother, who was at Leonor’s the afternoon preceding the shooting.
‘Ave Boyz’ take the stand
Testimony, which resumed Wednesday afternoon, saw Fry on the stand.
Fry, 18, is a member of the “Avenue Boys” – or “Ave Boyz” – as is Gaston, his brother. While both stated on the stand that the group is just composed of “friends,” the group has actually been suggested to have gang connections, according to testimony in the case’s October preliminary hearing.
Last June 9, at Athas’ adult school graduation at Lower Lake High School, Fry and Josh Gamble – Ross Sparks’ cousin – got into a fight following the ceremony.
District Attorney Don Anderson has alleged that the June 9 fight and the surrounding tensions between Sparks’ friends and family and friends of Lopez and Braden ultimately led to the fatal shooting, the worst in the city’s history.
Earlier in the proceedings, Athas had testified to seeing Braden and Lopez disappear for a short time during the party on June 18, 2011, later reappearing with Braden holding a shotgun wrapped in a sweatshirt.
She said he sawed the butt of the shotgun off in her grandmother’s garage and then played with the gun, allegedly telling others at the party that he was bored and wanted to go and shoot someone.
On Wednesday Fry appeared to corroborate some of Athas’ statements, saying he also had seen Braden carrying something that looked like a wrapped up shotgun.
Braden – who Fry also saw raising his voice and looking angry during a phone call while at the party – was the only person Fry saw with a firearm that night.
After seeing Braden carrying the gun, Fry said he felt uneasy and left the party a short time later.
When Fry was preparing to leave he said he saw Braden in the garage, with the shotgun in a vice, sawing the butt. He said Lopez was standing behind Braden.
Fry went home and had dinner, and found out about the shooting later that night in posts by friends on Facebook. The social media platform exploded with posts about the shooting that night and in the following days.
Describing graduation fight
Of his altercation with Gamble, Fry said the two have known each other since they were about 12 years old, and there has been “bad blood” between them more recently. They had arguments but never physically fought before the graduation incident.
Among the group of friends Fry testified to being with at that graduation were Leonardo and Orlando Lopez.
Fry said Gamble accused him of stepping on his shoe, which he didn’t believe he did.
When he got outside of the ceremony, Fry said Gamble and Armijo were waiting for him, their shirts off, wanting to fight.
Fry said he told them he couldn’t fight due to having a split tendon in his right middle finger, and injury he still has.
During questioning by Carter, Fry denied that the Ave Boyz were involved in criminal conduct, either individually or as a group. He also denied they wear red as their color, and that they didn’t take part in the “Ave Boyz” graffiti that has been seen around Clearlake.
Both Fry and Gaston would tell the court that the name “Ave Boyz” was a name given to them – they didn’t know by who. Gaston said the name began around January 2011, and later the group did adopt it.
“It was just a name that was given to us. We all lived in the avenues,” the 21-year-old Gaston said.
Also on Wednesday, Anderson filed a disclosure with the court regarding the potential criminal history of 17 of the witnesses set to testify in the case, including Fry, who was convicted in 2010 of a battery with serious bodily injury, according to the filing.
Testimony continues Thursday morning at 9 a.m.
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