How to resolve AdBlock issue? LAKEPORT, Calif. – Testimony in a Clearlake man’s trial for a fatal September 2013 shooting wrapped up on Friday, with the defendant himself taking the stand.
The murder trial of 28-year-old Joshua Robert Beavers has been under way since June 7.
Beavers is charged with fatally shooting 29-year-old David Ferrell on Sept. 8, 2013, in Clearlake. At that time he also shot and wounded Ferrell’s friends, Rachel Patterson and Paul Cressy, as he ran back to the vehicle that drove him from the scene.
What both the prosecution and defense appear to agree about is that the conflict that led to the shooting wasn’t between Ferrell and Beavers but between Beavers and his one-time friend, Cameron Fallis, whose mother, Angel Esquivel, and stepfather, Orlando Esquivel Sr., had become like parents to Beavers.
According to testimony, Beavers confronted Fallis at Ray’s Food Place in Clearlake on the morning of the shooting. Fallis’ parents were in the marijuana trade and a conflict had arisen over the fact that Fallis was selling marijuana for other people, not his family members.
Later that day the Esquivels, Beavers, Brenden Alicea and Daniel Cunningham went to Ferrell’s home to look for Fallis.
There, after a brief confrontation, Beavers drew a .22-caliber semiautomatic Ruger handgun from his waistband and shot Ferrell in the face, killing him instantly.
The group then fled the scene and hid the .22-caliber handgun as well as a .410 shotgun that Cunningham had carried. Beavers and the Esquivels returned to their home, where the Esquivels’ daughter, who was dating Beavers, told him to cut off his long hair to change his appearance.
He let her shave his head before he changed clothes and smoked marijuana to calm down. Clearlake Police officers responded to the home and took him into custody, along with the Esquivels and Alicea. Cunningham would be found months later.
Defense attorneys Edward Savin and Andrea Sullivan decided to allow Beavers to testify, so he took the stand Friday morning.
Beavers, who has been in jail for the nearly four years since the shooting, took the stand wearing a long-sleeved shirt, tie and slacks, with his hair now once again grown out and tied up in a man bun.
During his testimony, Beavers recounted a troubled childhood marked by being signed away at age 7 by his mother, who was a drug addict. He was placed in foster care and remained in the system until age 18.
Under questioning from his attorneys, he recounted meeting Fallis, and what they shared in common.
Both young men had been taken from their parents and placed into the foster care system as children. Angel Esquivel, Fallis’ birth mother, met Beavers while she worked at a group home in Ukiah. Beavers said she helped him to calm down when he was angry. He would later meet her son – several years his junior – after he was moved to a group home in Grass Valley.
Beavers said he would stick up for Fallis, who commonly was picked on and bullied, and they spent time together playing video games and sports, and going on group outings.
“I took a liking to him real fast and his mom was like my mom,” said Beavers of Fallis.
They lost touch shortly before Beavers’ 18th birthday, but met by chance again several years later in Ukiah, where they both had returned to live. Later they separately moved to Clearlake, where both became involved in growing marijuana.
Beavers said Fallis was verbally abusive to his mother and stole items from his family. Due to those issues and Fallis’ involvement in selling marijuana for growers other than his family, Beavers said he went to “clear the air” with Fallis in the morning of the shooting.
However, when he met Fallis at Ray’s and began asking him why he wasn’t properly handling his marijuana growing duties, Fallis began to stammer. That, said Beavers, was a sign Fallis was lying. So Beavers said he slapped Fallis several times.
During a series of subsequent phones calls between the two after they had left Ray’s, Ferrell became involved, asking Beavers how he would like to be jumped and saying he wanted the two young men to handle it, one on one, without weapons.
After leaving Ray’s, Beavers and the group returned to the Esquivels’ home, where Beavers said Angel Esquivel gave him her loaded .22-caliber Ruger handgun and then handled a sawed-off .410 shotgun to Cunningham, saying they were for protection.
During testimony last month, it was stated that Beavers had himself retrieved the two weapons; Cunningham said Beavers had handed him the shotgun.
The group then drove to Ferrell’s home at 19th and Gardner. When they arrived and walked down the driveway, Beavers said he felt like he was surrounded, and that he saw people in the bushes and behind a travel trailer.
He said Fallis came out of a travel trailer with a baseball bat in one hand and a pocket knife in another.
After a brief back and forth, Beavers said Ferrell lunged at him from a distance of about 5 to 6 feet with an item in his hand which the defense has suggested was a weight bar. Beavers said he stepped backward, pulled the handgun from his waistband and lifted the weapon up. As he was doing so, he said the weapon started to slip from his grip, and when he tried to get a better hold on it, the gun went off.
A single bullet struck Ferrell in the face, dropping him to the ground. “I froze,” said Beavers.
He and his companions then fled back to the van where Angel Esquivel was waiting. Beavers said he shot the handgun several more times – he claimed he was aiming into trees, not at people – believing he was being pursued.
Beavers admitted that he had lied to police in his initial statements about what happened. “The last thing that I expected was somebody to be fair to me.”
During cross-examination, Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff would return to the issues of Beavers’ truthfulness and his differing accounts of what had occurred.
“I didn't mean to shoot anyone,” said Beavers.
“Three people got shot that day, one of them killed, and none of it was on purpose?” asked Hinchcliff.
“No, sir,” Beavers replied.
Hinchcliff approached him, standing 6 feet away to illustrate the distance Beavers claimed Ferrell was standing from him, and asked if it sounded believable, that he could draw and shoot with someone so close. Beavers said it did sound possible to him.
Hinchcliff also asked Beavers if he thought he was the unluckiest person on Earth, to have all of those unintended shootings occurring at the same time. Beavers said he didn't know how to answer the question.
Asked by Sullivan how fe felt about the situation now, Beavers said, “I feel broken.”
He added, “It’s hard to even think about the situation because I didn't mean to hurt him, I didn't mean to hurt anyone.”
Hinchcliff pressed Beavers on why he didn’t just leave if he felt the situation was so dangerous. Beavers said he felt like he was surrounded.
“Do you think bringing a gun to a fist fight was fair?” Hinchcliff asked.
“Depending on the circumstances, yes,” said Beavers.
Also on the stand on Friday was Dr. Ikechi O. Ogan, MD, a forensic medical examiner with Fairfield-based Forensic Medical Group, the firm which the county contracts with for autopsies.
Ogan conducted Ferrell’s autopsy at the Napa County morgue in the days after his murder.
Ferrell had a single gunshot wound to the head, in the right eye, with the path of the bullet indicating that it traveled horizontally and straight through, with no upward or downward angle, Ogan said.
He said the cause of death was a single penetrating gunshot wound of the head, which led to an “almost instantaneous” death for Ferrell due to the damage to his brainstem. Ogan said Ferrell’s skin had no sign of soot or stippling, meaning that the gun was held more than 18 inches away from him when he was shot.
Hinchcliff suggested in his questioning that the evidence showed that the gun had been held level at Ferrell’s head.
Clearlake Police Det. Ryan Peterson, who had testified earlier in the trial, returned to the stand as the last witness in testimony.
Hinchcliff recalled Peterson to ask him about the “Tueller rule,” named for the man who formulated it in the 1980s, Salt Lake City Police Department firearms instructor Lt. John Tueller.
As Peterson explained, Tueller designed tests that showed that an individual armed with an edged weapon – such as a knife – could travel 21 feet and overtake an officer before the officer could unholster and shoot their weapon.
The rule was covered in the police academy, where Peterson said they practiced trying to respond before being overtaken.
Hinchcliff used the line of questioning to challenge Beavers’ testimony that he had been able to draw the handgun from his waistband – which Peterson said would take longer than drawing from a holster – with Ferrell lunging at him from only 6 feet away. The evidence also suggested that Ferrell’s skin would have had evidence of stippling had he been so close.
With both the prosecution and defense resting their cases, they will now meet with Judge Andrew Blum on Wednesday, July 12, to go over jury instructions. Closing arguments, the delivery of jury instructions and the beginning of deliberations are set to begin at 9 a.m. Thursday, July 13.
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