[Thomas Frey, TDT]
A jury began deliberations April 6 in Juan Carlos Vazquez-Orozco’s homicide trial. Vazquez-Orozco is accused of shooting and killing El Dorado County sheriff’s deputy Brian Ishmael Oct. 23, 2019.
Vazquez-Orozco is charged with murder in the first degree and assault with a firearm. He maintains he was shooting in self-defense when he pulled the trigger on the gun, taking 37-year-old Ishmael’s life and wounding San Joaquin County deputy Josh Tasabia, who was on a ridealong. He also shot at deputies Brian Shelton and Shawn Taroli.
The defendant was living at 4740 Sand Ridge Road, a property owned by Christopher Ross. His job was to tend to about 100 marijuana plants of Ross’ as part of an illegal grow operation. Each plant was on target to yield about 3 pounds of marijuana.
Vazquez-Orozco was 20 years old and sleeping in a tent with no bathroom or running water. He would be paid $200 a day once the crop was harvested. Deputy district attorney Joe Alexander estimated the plants were worth a combined $249,600 based off the testimony of Det. Michael Roberts, who said the going rate per pound was $800-$1,200 in 2019.
When Vazquez-Orozco began working for Ross about a month before Oct. 23, 2019, he had been living in the United States for a little more than a year. He testified — through an interpreter — that when he lived in Mexico, he worked with cattle and was paid 5,000 pesos a month — about $200-$250.
“He’s making almost as much per day working in this marijuana garden as he would working a month running cattle in Mexico,” Alexander said. “That’s an incentive because he’s not going to get paid if there is no harvest.”
He was given a .22 revolver not by Ross, but by a growing ring boss the prosecution identified with the name of Abelardo.
Taking the stand, Vazquez-Orozco told his attorney Lori London he was given instructions that if robbers came on the property, “that I should scare them” and that he was “told to shoot.”
While Vazquez-Orozco claimed he was acting in self-defense, Alexander pointed out that the value of the crop was “a powerful motive” to protect the marijuana.
“He is not in imminent danger. He’s not defending himself. He’s defending marijuana. He’s intent to kill anyone who threatens the marijuana,” Alexander said.
[…]
He described walking forward a little bit and shooting again. “They started shooting at me. I didn’t know what to do.”
Then he hid behind a post for about five minutes.
“I was scared but I couldn’t hear anything. (There were) no lights. Everything had gone back to normal,” Vazquez-Orozco said.
He explained that he had left his phone and shoes in the tent and made his way back in that direction.
“When I got to the tent I thought they had left,” he noted.
He said he heard gunfire. “The next thing I know I had been shot in my leg,” Vazquez-Orozco testified. “At that moment I was scared so I just ran. I was running and firing at the same time. I was just shooting. I didn’t know what direction, I was just shooting behind.”
That statement didn’t corroborate with the testimony of Tasabia.
“(Tasabia) said the first time he saw the defendant, the defendant was coming out from that brush pile, pointing the gun and pulling the trigger,” Alexander argued. “Josh Tasabia was very adamant about how the defendant started both the first volley and the second volley.
“He’s shooting at Brian Ishmael specifically and he strikes Brian Ishmael four times and I cannot emphasize that enough because you’re not shooting in the ground or shooting randomly or shooting over your shoulder as you’re running wildly through the woods,” Alexander said. “You hit your intended target four times; that’s really good. How do you shoot the ground and somehow miraculously hit your intended target at a rate of about 45%.”
Vazquez-Orozco took 11 shots and hit Ishmael on four of them and Tasabia on another.
“To say that the killing of Brian Ishmael was a fluke is an insult to common sense,” Alexander said. “And it’s an insult to the crime scene evidence and the testimony.”
Alexander, in his closing argument asked […]
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“Christopher Ross lied not only about the grow being robbed but he left out basic crucial facts to 911— the facts that ultimately cost Brian Ishmael his life,” London said in her closing statement. “As deputy Taroli told you, had they known the truth, they never would have gone up there.”
As London finished her statement, Alexander closed with his final remarks.
“Christopher Ross started this whole thing off but today is not his day in court and he will have that day. Today is this man’s day in court,”
Pretty sad that this trial is happening now 2 years later. Praying the Ishmael family gets Justice for this heinous crime. What a tragic story of failed immigration policy and criminal advocacy.