Sunday Commentary: Thoughts on the Public Defender’s Office and Last Night’s Event

If you missed last night’s event – you really missed a lot.  The Vanguard launched the Court Watch project back in 2010 and has had a front row seat to the criminal justice system in Yolo County, and last night we got a really up-close and almost behind-the-scenes glimpse of it through the eyes and the work of the Yolo County Public Defender’s Office.

If there was a moment that really captured for me the essence of the night, the inhumanity of the system, and the dedication of the public defenders in this office, it was a story told by Martha Sequeira.  Ms. Sequeira has a reputation for being a fiery advocate and a fierce attorney, but she is at the same time amazingly passionate and dedicated.

She told the story of an 18-year-old client who was facing life in prison and she was absolutely convinced that he was innocent.  But unfortunately, as she put it, she had a deputy DA prosecuting the case who had never seen a gang case he didn’t like.  The day before the trial, they got a five-year offer.  As she put it, now he had a real dilemma, he was 18 years old, he was facing life, and he could plead to a certain release date.

But he was innocent.  He asked her what he should do, and she said that he was crying, she was crying.  She went to talk with her supervisor, Ron Johnson, who ultimately told her, “Since when are we
in the business of pleading innocent people?”

That sealed it for her, she said she left, threw up, talked to the kid, they both cried some more and he put his life in her hands.  The next day, she informed the deputy DA that he was rejecting the plea offer.  She said the fact that an 18-year-old kid was willing to risk his life rather than take a sure five-year sentence told the deputy DA he was going to lose the case – and the next day, the deputy DA moved to dismiss the charges and the kid was able to go home free and she said, to the best of her knowledge, he has not had a run-in with the law since.

Dan Hutchinson told the story of Lance Ornellas-Castro who was acquitted back in March after facing life in prison for first degree murder.  It was a case the Vanguard heavily covered and, as I described, I caught the closing arguments by happenstance.  I called it the best piece of lawyering I have seen in my nearly eight years of covering the Yolo County courts.

On Saturday, Mr. Hutchinson laid out the background of his client, who had served in Afghanistan as a Marine.  He described in detail how Mr. Ornellas-Castro had lost a close friend who was sweeping for IEDs when one went off.  The friend was covering his shift, and when he returned from Afghanistan he was suffering from PTSD.

As a result, Dan Hutchinson explained, he carried his gun everywhere, not feeling safe without its presence.  And so, while the DA described the killing as a robbery gone back, Mr. Hutchinson was able to re-cast it for the jurors – here was an arranged marijuana sale with a noted bigger time dealer, the dealer was unarmed but that was unknown to the defendant at the time, and they got into a heated argument.  The dealer, sitting in the front seat of the car, turned his head and seemed to reach for his pocket as though reaching for a weapon, and he was shot and killed by Mr. Ornellas-Castro.

The tragedy of this incident is that the victim was, according to Mr. Hutchinson, a victim in every sense of the word, as he didn’t do a thing wrong and yet lost his life.

To make matters worse, Jorge Garcia, the close friend of Mr. Ornellas-Castro, turned state’s evidence against his friend in order to gain a lesser sentence of 14 years. However, his testimony was inconsistent – at one point he flipped on the prosecution and testified that there was no robbery, only to come back with a new story after conferring with the prosecution.

There were two questions for the jury – one was this a robbery gone bad, but they quickly decided that it was not.  The second was whether Mr. Ornellas-Castro was reasonable in his fear for his life.  Dan Hutchinson explained that the jury in their deliberations placed themselves in his position and asked whether they would shoot the guy, and half said they would.  Given that split, the jury ultimately concluded that his fear was reasonable, even if it was based on inaccurate information, and they ultimately acquitted him of voluntary manslaughter.

Monica Brushia told the story of Quentin Stone, who was acquitted in the death of his three-month-old son Sam.  It was a tough case that the Vanguard covered three years ago, where Ms. Brushia and co-counsel Martha Sequeira had to go against years of faulty medical beliefs in challenging the finding that the death was the result of Mr. Stone violently shaking his three-month-old.

Ms. Brushia painted a different picture for the audience, showing the medical history of the baby and the inability of doctors to take their reports of projectile vomiting and seizures seriously.

The prosecution’s case was based on the notion that the injuries were a direct result of shaking the baby violently on more than one occasion. However, the science of shaken baby syndrome has been called into question in recent years.

The key prosecution expert, Dr. Bennet Omalu, testified that there was no doubt that the baby died of a severe traumatic brain injury.

He would testify, “Sam’s injuries were not sustained from a fall. It was non-accidental. An infant’s motor abilities are very small and the injuries incurred would require a lot of mass and energy.”

However, Dr. John Plunkett, a critic of shaken-baby theory, would testify a few days later that it is was just as likely that Samuel’s injuries resulted from a fall from a three-foot-high bed onto the hardwood floor.

Many people have been wrongly imprisoned on this medical theory, but because of the work of the Yolo County Public Defender’s Office, Mr. Stone was able to avoid that fate.

It was a powerful evening, as Public Defender Tracie Olson talked about the work of her office, Andrea Pelochino talked about juvenile justice and a series of reforms, and Supervisor Don Saylor gave introductory remarks and talked about the nature of Yolo County and its high rates of incarceration and high number of trials.

You can watch the whole two and a half hours here:

—David M. Greenwald reporting