By Sam Stanton
The Sacramento Bee
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Barely two hours into the first day of trial for accused cop killer Luis Bracamontes, the proceedings devolved Tuesday into a spectacle of the defendant threatening to kill more people, giggling as a prosecutor described his 2014 crime spree and his own lawyers once again questioning his sanity.
Just after lunch, a lawyer for the illegal immigrant told the jury that his client in fact did shoot to death Sacramento County Sheriff’s Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer Deputy Michael Davis Jr. in a daylong spree of violence that started in a Motel 6 parking lot near Arden Fair Mall and ended in a shootout near Auburn.
“Let me be clear and up front,” said defense lawyer Jeffrey Barbour. “Mr. Bracamontes is responsible for the death of Deputy Danny Oliver and Detective Michael Davis.
“He shot them both.”
The admission came shortly after Bracamontes repeatedly interrupted the courtroom proceedings by insulting his victims.
“I wish I had killed more of the mother-------,” he boasted to the jury as prosecutor Rod Norgaard described the 2014 crime spree.
Smiling broadly, Bracamontes added, “I will break out soon and I will kill more, kill whoever gets in front of me...There’s no need for a f------ trial.”
That outburst led to Sacramento Superior court Judge Steve White briefly removing the jury, then warning Bracamontes he could be removed from court.
“You will not disrupt this trial, you will not speak out,” White told him. “If you do, you will be removed from the courtroom.”
Barbour, who along with partner Norm Dawson has questioned Bracamontes’ sanity, then asked the judge to reconsider his finding that Bracamontes is mentally competent to stand trial.
“Your motion is denied,” White told Barbour. He then had the jury come back in and instructed them not to pay any attention to what had happened. All of them indicated they could do so, and Norgaard concluded his opening statement just before noon.
Barbour and Dawson then renewed their efforts, asking the judge if they could enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
“We believe Mr. Bracamonts’ outbursts, his laughter, are a function of his mental illness...,” Barbour said.
But the judge was having none of it, noting that the issue already had been litigated in previous hearings and that if Bracamontes chooses not to help his lawyers that’s up to him. “He is not incompetent to stand trial,” White declared.
Bracamontes, 37, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, is on trial along with his wife, Janelle Monroy, 41. The pair are accused of killing Oliver and Davis and wounding a number of other victims.
Bracamontes faces the death penalty; his wife faces life if convicted.
The case has drawn widespread media attention, partly because of Bracamontes’ status as an illegal immigrant and his history of arrests and deportations in Arizona. President Trump has weighed in on the case, mentioning it during a speech to Congress last year and introducing the widow of one of the slain deputies.
As Norgaard described the ambush slaying of Oliver, he recounted how Oliver’s partner, Scott Brown, came under heavy fire as he emptied his 15-round clip at Bracamontes in the Motel 6 parking lot near Arden Fair Mall on Oct. 24, 2014.
Brown retreated under heavy fire, Norgaard recounted. As he talked, Bracamontes grinned and, finally could not restrain himself.
“Coward,” Bracamontes said of Brown, who had just seen his partner killed.
At one point, as Norgaard described the wounding of Jeff Davis (who is not related to slain deputy Michael Davis), Bracamontes interrupted again with, “Cause he’s stupid.”
That drew a sharp rebuke from the judge: “Be silent.”
Both defendants were seated at a defense table facing one of the two juries in the case Tuesday, although there is a stark difference in how the two were being handled. Monroy was allowed to sit wearing a gray and black dress without shackles or chains. But Bracamontes was seated at the table with waist chains and his arms shackled beneath the table, an outgrowth of his numerous outbursts during court hearings that have included his confessions that he is guilty and his threats to kill more officers.
Two Sacramento County Sheriff’s deputies were standing behind him in court, and one was standing behind Monroy.
Bracamontes grinned throughout the first portion of Norgaard’s statement, laughed out loud when the prosecutor said he cared only about his dogs, and stared at spectators in the courtroom who include the dead deputies’ families.
The case is proceeding with juries for both defendants, and only Bracamontes’ jury was in court Tuesday morning. One juror already had to be replaced after calling in and saying they needed surgery this week.
That left the jury of six men and six women and nine alternates.
Despite admitting his client shot the officers, Barbour urged the jurors to listen to evidence presented that may be of use in the penalty phase, when they will have to choose between the death penalty or life in prison if he is convicted.
Part of that evidence will include the fact that Bracamontes tested after his arrest for an “excessively high” amount of methamphetamine that may have made him paranoid and agitated, and that he wrote a suicide note in the house where he holed up before surrendering to authorities.
“Forgive me, God,” the note read. “Please take me with you. I love you, Janelle.”
Prosecutors say the suicide note was written after Bracamontes turned on the burners of the home’s gas stove and tried to have it ignite to kill him and any officers who rushed in. Instead, Bracamontes crawled out of the house and surrendered meekly.
The Bracamontes jury is referred to as the “red jury,” while the jury deciding Monroy’s fate is referred to as the “green jury.”
That jury was brought in Tuesday afternoon to hear opening statements from Norgaard and Monroy attorney Pete Kmeto.
Bracamontes and his lawyers received permission from White to skip that part of the proceedings, meaning there likely would be no further outbursts Tuesday. The first witness in the case is expected to begin testimony Wednesday.
The trial is being held in a large, first-floor courtroom chosen to accommodate family members of the dead deputies and the expected crush of onlookers and media, including photographers who were allowed to record images of the suspects’ faces for the first time since their arrests.
White has previously kept cameras out of the courtroom, but has agreed to allow access during the start of the trial, closing arguments, the reading of the verdicts and any sentencing.
Bracamontes’ wife has remained mostly quiet during the pretrial proceedings, although at times she has cried at the defense table as her husband has acted out. Her attorney, Pete Kmeto, is expected to argue that Monroy was, in essence, Bracamontes’ first victim.
Court filings have described Bracamontes as paranoid and abusive, and say that while the couple drove from their Salt Lake City home to Sacramento he smoked methamphetamine and marijuana and threatened to sell her into sexual slavery.
Because the slain deputies were from two different counties, prosecutors were chosen from each office to work together on the case. Norgaard comes from the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office, while Tellman comes from the Placer County office.
©2018 The Sacramento Bee (Sacramento, Calif.)