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Ex-boyfriend arrested in Calif. officer’s slaying
Calif. man who killed officer ex-girlfriend escapes murder charge
By Henry K. Lee
San Francisco Chronicle
VALLEJO, Calif. — An unrepentant Vallejo man insisted today that he acted in self-defense when he fatally shot his ex-girlfriend, an off-duty Richmond police officer, outside a funeral in 2006.
Quartus Hinton, 29, a parolee with a lengthy criminal record, made his case before a Solano County judge before being sentenced to 38 years in prison for voluntary manslaughter. As he began speaking in a Vallejo courtroom, the mother of Kaliah Harper, the woman he killed, turned around in her seat and covered her ears. She soon walked out.
“I’m truly a man of blood, not hatred,” Hinton said. He insisted he had killed Harper because she and family members were conspiring to kill him. He offered his condolences only to relatives of Harper who were “not directly involved or in the loop” of the supposed plot.
Prosecutors had charged Hinton with murder with the special circumstance of lying in wait, which could have resulted in a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. But a Solano County jury convicted Hinton in July of voluntary manslaughter and a weapons charge.
Judge Allan Carter sentenced Hinton to 38 years in prison, eliciting a loud shout of “Yes!” from Harper’s mother, Beverly Moore, who then began sobbing.
“It should have been first-degree murder,” Moore said outside court. “But at least he got the maximum amount. I don’t have my child and will never have her. That’s it.”
Harper, 28, attended De Anza High School in Richmond and Cal State Sacramento before graduating at the top of her class at Napa Valley College Police Academy. She was promoted to the Richmond police narcotics task force while still a probationary hire. She made 350 arrests and received 12 letters of commendation praising her work.
Carter sentenced Hinton after rejecting a motion by defense attorney Michael Ogul for a new trial on the grounds of juror misconduct and new evidence in the case.
To support Hinton’s claim of self-defense, Ogul called Solano County jail inmate Troy Cole to the stand today. Cole testified that he was present in November 2006 when Harper gave $10,000 to a man and promised an additional $10,000 if he killed “Q,” which Cole said was a reference to Hinton.
Cole refused to identify the man - even after being ordered to by the judge - saying the name was “irrelevant.”
“This is a person who honestly thought he was going to be killed,” Ogul told the judge, referring to Hinton.
Prosecutor Chris Pedersen said Hinton blamed everyone but himself for the killing and had shown a “complete lack of remorse” for shooting Harper on Nov. 24, 2006.
Harper, who lived in Suisun City, was shot numerous times with a .45-caliber handgun outside a memorial service at the Fairfield Community Center for two young cousins of Hinton who had been killed in a car crash the week before.
Police believe Hinton shot Harper because she broke up with him. Hinton told police that Harper had threatened him, saying, “I could put you away for life,” and that he “got fed up with it,” according to videotaped interviews with detectives.
Hinton said he had stolen a friend’s gun and shot Harper because he believed she had learned of his complaints about her to the Richmond police, according to court testimony. Those complaints were never substantiated, authorities said.
Hinton said he had shot Harper after she reached into her purse for what he thought was a gun. Police did not find a gun.
Copyright 2008 San Francisco Chronicle