Month: May 2013

The trial began for Shannon Silva and Billy Wolfington, charged with murder and gang charges following what was described by Deputy DA Ryan Couzens as one of the most brutal stabbings one medical investigator had ever scene.

The victim was 29-year-old Bobby Brittenum, who was stabbed more than 14 times in a room at the Town House Motel located in the 900 block of West Capitol Ave.  The stabbing occurred at 6:45 pm, and Mr. Brittenum was found lying in the parking lot, bleeding.  He would be transported to the hospital but died from his injuries.

Earlier this week, the Sacramento Police Department reported the death of a man in his forties, in their custody after a brief but violent struggle.  On Tuesday they released a brief report on the death of John Torretti.

Death in Custody Investigation – The Sacramento Police Department’s investigation into the death of John Torretti, while he was in police custody, continues. The department immediately launched an investigation to understand the full facts of this case and appreciates those who resisted the urge to jump to conclusions during a very tragic situation.

I have heard the horror stories, this year among all others.  Misdemeanor courtrooms where attorneys are nowhere to be seen.  Defendants in custody for months on minor charges, without having seen an attorney, and the judge completely indifferent.  That does not happen in Yolo County.

Still, what I saw last Monday disturbs me for what could have been, rather than for what was.  It had all of the recipes for disaster.  We start with a young 23-year-old defendant who was apparently cited by the CHP, driving on I-80 at excessive speeds with a suspended license.  At some point, someone told her she did not need an attorney as the misdemeanor would be dropped.

Earlier this week, in a column, we questioned the defense in the Clayton Garzon case, where he allegedly attacked Mikey Partida while using racial epithets.  As we noted at the time, the defense brought in a linguistics expert from Brigham Young University in Utah to testify that anti-gay slurs are not necessarily reflective of bias against homosexuals, but rather could be simply used to challenge one’s manhood.

Professor William Eggington testified that language is more nuanced than people think, with a single word having a variety of meanings when used in various social contexts.

I admit that when nationally publicized trials come on, I turn them off.  It’s a bad habit of mine.  I made the mistake with the OJ Simpson trial, and I have made the mistake several other times.  I have come to regret it yet again.  Another time I will explain my predilection for doing this, but for now, let me just point out my eyes were opened when I saw that the jury could not reach a verdict on the penalty phase.

To me this is a misnomer.  If you have a penalty phase and the jury cannot agree on life or death, then the default should be life, and the case should be over.  These were the jurors that convicted Ms. Arias, these are the ones who know the case the best, and if they can’t decide, then that’s reasonable doubt, isn’t it?

In the past few weeks, I have had numerous conversations on the issue of racial profiling and the recent event involving 68-year-old Eli Davis.  One of the more interesting things is how much the reaction of white and blacks diverge, not only on this incident, but on the issue of the treatment of blacks and minorities by the criminal justice system as a whole.

Public relations people use the term “optics” to describe how something will look like to the outside world, and one of the problems is that police interactions and criminal justice interactions with minority populations suffer from poor optics.  When one group is disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system, regardless of the myriad of reasons for that, the optics look bad.