Deputy Brian Ishmael. (El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office)
(BAY AREA NEWS GROUP)
El Dorado County, CA — A man who fatally shot a sheriff’s deputy who showed up at a Northern California marijuana garden in the middle of the night was found guilty of killing him — as was the 911 caller who falsely reported a robbery at the site.
The shooter — Juan Carlos Vasquez-Orozco, 22 — was convicted Friday of the second-degree murder of Brian Ishmael and of assault on three other deputies. He could face life in prison when he is sentenced next month, El Dorado County District Attorney Vern Pierson said.
Christopher Ross, 49, who made the phone call, had earlier pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and is expected to be sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison.
The fatal encounter occurred around 1 a.m. on Oct. 23, 2019, near the rural community of Somerset, in the Sierra Nevada 6 miles southeast of Placerville. Ishmael, an El Dorado County sheriff’s deputy, had gone to investigate a 911 caller’s report that men were stealing marijuana plants from a grow site.
In making the call, Ross had left out key information: Two men had been hired to tend and guard the site on his own land; they had a gun, and neither was fluent in English. Ross had made a deal to allow a third party to grow the marijuana there.
He later explained the 911 call by saying he saw “strange activity” that night and began to suspect he would be stiffed for the $3,000 he said he was owed by the grower.
When the deputies arrived, Vasquez-Orozco opened fire and ran from the grow, then returned and ambushed the other deputies, prosecutors said.
Ishmael, 37, was hit four times and died at the scene. San Joaquin County sheriff’s Deputy Joshua Tasabia — who had been doing a ride-along with Ishmael — was shot in the leg. Two other El Dorado County deputies who responded after the initial shooting came under fire but were not injured.
Vasquez-Orozco was shot and underwent surgery after his arrest.
The other guard, Ramiro Bravo Morales, 24, pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact and was sentenced to three years in prison.
Investigators believed Ross was trying to get the two men arrested under false pretenses so he could keep all the profits from the 75 plants.
“Had (Ross) been truthful with our deputies and the 911 dispatcher, this tragic event would not have occurred,” Sheriff John D’Agostini told reporters the day after the killing.
In a jailhouse interview with Sacramento TV station KTXL in 2019, Ross said he legitimately believed a crime was in progress — that the guards were planning to take the plants and disappear without paying him. He said he had gotten the first payment of $10,000 for the use of his land, but the final $3,000 would not be paid until the harvest.
“That I would use the sheriff’s department to kill people? Of course not. It’s absurd,” he said.
At his trial, Vasquez-Orozco testified that he was hired to oversee and protect the garden for $200 a day, to be paid after the harvest, according to the Mountain Democrat newspaper. He said he had come to California from Mexico, where he made $200 a month tending cattle.
Ishmael had worked four years for the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office, after two years with the Placerville Police Department. He is survived by his wife and three children.
Tasabia’s injury left him disabled, ending his law enforcement career.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
About Post Author
I miss my friend Ish. He was a great man and really cared about his community.