defended himself in court last week,<\/a> denying that he had violated any law during the shooting. The jury was split 7 to 5 for a guilty verdict on two charges of assault with a deadly weapon, and 8 to 4 for a guilty verdict on two charges of unlawful use of force with a deadly weapon by a peace officer. <\/p>\nMurillo stood stone-faced at attention as the judge addressed the court but seemed relieved once the deadlock was announced. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it came down to people\u2019s kind of fundamental feelings about law enforcement,\u201d said Murillo\u2019s attorney, Vicki Podberesky. \u201cIt\u2019s about whether you can appreciate the fact that a law enforcement officer is in a dangerous position and has to make a split-second decision.\u201d <\/p>\n
In a statement, the district attorney\u2019s office said it respected \u201cthe jury\u2019s careful consideration of the evidence in this case.\u201d A decision has not been made as to whether prosecutors will retry Murillo. <\/p>\n
Jurors deliberated for three days, first indicating they might be at an impasse Monday morning. A note sent to L.A. County Superior Court Judge George Lomeli indicated they had already cast ballots twice and most jurors seemed immovable, but Lomeli ordered them to debate further. <\/p>\n
Murillo and his partner, Cynthia Lopez, were working as part of an undercover unit in April 2020 when they came upon a white Mitsubishi that had been linked to a robbery at a local Walmart.<\/p>\n
The detective called for a marked patrol vehicle to stop the car, according to Podberesky. Although Nicholas Carrillo happened to be driving the Mitsubishi that day, he was not a suspect in the robbery, which prosecutors say was committed by his then-girlfriend. <\/p>\n
When confronted by police in an alleyway, Carrillo backed his vehicle into the unmarked car. Deputy Dist. Atty. Ryan Tracy downplayed the vehicle crash, describing it as \u201cmore of a jolt\u201d while noting Carrillo was driving at less than 10 mph. The vehicle\u2019s airbags did not deploy on impact, Tracy said. <\/p>\n
Murillo, however, testified that Carrillo rammed his car and that he considered it an assault. <\/p>\n
After the crash, Lopez fired one shot into Carrillo\u2019s vehicle and two more as he fled on foot. Murillo took off after Carrillo, and he told jurors last week that he believed Carrillo had opened fire, not his partner. <\/p>\n
Murillo said that as Carrillo turned a corner out of the alley, Murillo noticed the fleeing man reach toward his waistband and turn his body toward the detective.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point everything changes for me. I see Mr. Carrillo\u2019s left hand punch out and his right hand is in his waistband. … At this point I believed he was trying to acquire my location to shoot me,\u201d Murillo said during two days of testimony last week. <\/p>\n
Assault charges against Lopez were dismissed at a preliminary hearing last year. She did not testify at Murillo\u2019s trial.<\/p>\n
Murillo shot at Carrillo four times, striking him twice in the back. One of the rounds severed Carrillo\u2019s spine, leaving him permanently paralyzed. He died earlier this year of a drug overdose, according to coroner\u2019s records. <\/p>\n
In his closing argument last week, Tracy said Murillo had no reasonable fear for his safety when he shot Carrillo from behind. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Mr. Murillo did the act, he did not act in self-defense or defense of others,\u201d Tracy said.<\/p>\n
Podberesky reminded jurors that law enforcement officers do not need to see a suspect holding a gun to justify the use of deadly force. <\/p>\n
She also brought up Carrillo\u2019s behavior before the shooting and his past arrests for attacks on police and the use of methamphetamine, which she said led Murillo to believe the man he was chasing was a danger to the public. <\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Murillo is pursuing because [Carrillo] acted dangerously and he\u2019s running down an alley in a residential area during the pandemic when we are all sheltering at home, families and children,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Tracy, however, said Murillo acted unreasonably. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe he did not have to fire four times, at a man who was running away and unarmed \u2026 striking him twice in the back, and paralyzing him for life,\u201d the prosecutor said. <\/p>\n
Another hearing on Murillo\u2019s case is set for early January. Podberesky said she hopes the case can be settled in the district attorney\u2019s office before then. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think that it would be prudent for the D.A.\u2019s office to come to a resolution that appreciates the sort of position of Mr. Murillo in this case,\u201d she said. \u201cWe would look forward to an opportunity to speak to the district attorney about resolving this case.\u201d<\/p>\n
Los Angeles County prosecutors have been unable to convict an officer for misconduct in an on-duty shooting since 2000. In recent years, prosecutors working under ex-Dist. Atty. George Gasc\u00f3n secured no-contest pleas from two sheriff\u2019s deputies involved in controversial on-duty killings. Only one deputy spent any time behind bars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in a case against a former Whittier detective accused of multiple counts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2598,1052,283,37184,1436,37190,37188,48,52,51,734,47,50,49,37183,12415,7214,37185,37186,37189,37187],"class_list":["post-61544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-assault","tag-attorney","tag-car","tag-carrillo","tag-case","tag-cynthia-lopez","tag-juror","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-law-enforcement","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-murillo","tag-patrol-vehicle","tag-prosecutor","tag-ryan-tracy","tag-unarmed-man","tag-unlawful-use","tag-vicki-podberesky"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}