By Nathan Yanez
Woodland – The jury trial for Sterling Samm, Jr., resumed Thursday with the prosecution continuing to question the alleged victim, “Ms. G.” Sterling Samm is being charged with kidnapping and vandalism, while having prior convictions for an incident that occurred in Davis on July 2, 2018.
The court continued with the testimony of the alleged victim in the case, Ms. G. The matter being discussed was an altercation that took place on February 24 at the Motel 6 in Davis, CA. In the continuation of the testimony, they discussed text messages that talked about the anger in the fight that the victim and defendant had for each other, as well as the text messages that discussed the premise of his being in court. One of the text messages read “you’re in jail because you are aggressive.” About 10 days previous to the incident on February 24 the witness revealed that while they were fighting and swinging at each other, she broke one of her fingers. She also revealed that the information that she gave the officer on the 24th was exaggerated.
In cross-examination, it was revealed that the witness was often jealous of the defendant’s many female friends and that, in their fours years of dating, they fought a lot. In the testimony, it was revealed that after an altercation between the defendant and Ms. G, the defendant wanted his belongings from the car and wanted to leave. After striking the defendant in the shin with her keys, the witness fled to 
the hotel lobby where authorities were contacted. When the witness struck the defendant with the keys she also broke the skin, which called him to bleed. In her report she gave the officer a story of what happened that night and that the defendant sometimes used drugs. In her testimony, it was revealed that she lied to law enforcement about the defendant choking her, putting a blanket over her face, and threatening to kill her. Through questioning the defense was suggesting that Ms. G was initiating the violence and has done so on several occasions before. The defense questioned her about the lying, and insinuated that she lied to protect herself from going to jail.
The next witness called to the stand was Officer Chase McCampbell, one of the officers who responded to the scene. To begin the testimony, Mr. Kyle Hasapes for the People asked about Officer McCampbell’s previous experience with being around recent fight wounds as well as dealing with domestic violence. Officer McCampbell was the officer to interview the alleged victim, Ms. G. The People then played a 40-minute video of body camera footage of the interview between the officer and Ms. G. Officer McCampbell agreed that the video was a clear and accurate depiction of the events that night. Officer McCampbell stated that he noticed Ms. G was visibly upset, shaking and breathing heavily. He also noticed a contusion under her left eye, a hit on her lip, and a old bruise on her arm. He said she was reluctant to share at first, but became more at ease because he told her no one was going to jail.
In cross-examination, the defense asked Officer McCampbell if there had been any signs of injury consistent with what he was told. McCampbell indicated that there were no recent significant injuries to the alleged victim. When conducting a search on the defendant there were no knives or narcotics on the defendant or the spaces he occupied.
The next witness called by the People was “GR,” who witnessed a fight several years prior which involved the defendant. In the testimony, it was revealed that GR had witnessed a fight between a man and women on the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) system. On May 13, 2016, the witness was at the Walnut Creek BART station when he witnessed a loud shouting fight which quickly escalated and ended in the man knocking the female to the floor and lightly punching her three to four times. The authorities were contacted.
The last witness of the day to be called by the People was Sergeant John Powers of the BART police department. He was the officer to respond to the call about the violence at the Walnut Creek station that day. In his testimony, he said that he interviewed the alleged violent male at the scene and, after looking at an ID, discovered that it was the defendant, Mr. Samm.
The trial will reconvene with more witnesses on Friday, August 9, at 9 am and will proceed well into next week.
