Trial of Stanislaus County sheriff’s deputy opens with description of fatal shooting
The trial of the Stanislaus County sheriff’s deputy charged with voluntary manslaughter in the on-duty shooting of a Modesto woman in 2017 began this week.
Deputy Justin Wall will testify about everything he did in the early morning hours of Feb. 26, 2017, what he saw and why he shot Evin Olsen Yadegar, defense attorney Paul Goyette said during his opening statement Wednesday.
San Joaquin County Chief Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau showed dash camera video that captured Yadegar’s final moments after a low-speed pursuit from Salida to Ripon.
Surrounded by a half dozen law enforcement officers yelling commands at her, Yadegar slowly backed up, not even a full rotation of the vehicle’s tires, before proceeding forward. Wall fired into her vehicle four times as she drove away from him and the other law enforcement officers.
None of the other officers fired their weapons, but several drew them.
Goyette told the jury Wall was in a dangerous, uncertain, stressful and rapidly changing situation. He is a human being, not a robot, and his vision, perception and reaction at the time of the incident can’t compare to watching video of the events in the comfort of a courtroom.
Goyette said Wall had tunnel vision and never perceived that Yadegar’s vehicle was moving away from him, he perceived only that it had moved backward, toward his fellow law enforcement officers. He fired because he feared for their lives, Goyette said, and those officers will testify they also were in fear.
The events of that night started around 3 a.m. when Yadegar allegedly was involved in the misdemeanor battery of a security guard at a hotel in Salida. For unknown reasons, she had been staying at a different hotel nearby.
“There’s a lot of questions you might have in this case that I can’t answer, that no one can answer,” Himelblau said.
Pursuit was on surface streets, Highway 99
When a deputy located Yadegar, she failed to pull over and a pursuit ensued, which ranged from speeds of 10-15 mph on surface streets to 40 mph on Highway 99, where deputies followed her to Ripon.
Wall, a K9 deputy at the time, was driving home in his patrol vehicle. His shift ended at 3 a.m., but when the call came out over the radio of a pursuit in progress, he had to respond. Goyette said deputies with K9s are expected to respond to pursuits. While there was another K9 deputy on the way, Wall was closest, Goyette said.
During the pursuit, one deputy radioed that Yadegar might be having a seizure. Wall got on the radio and asked another deputy to confirm that a battery had occurred, Himelblau said. As the pursuit continued onto Highway 99 and just before Yadegar exited on Main Street in Ripon, a deputy at the hotel in Salida radioed that the security guard did not want to press charges against Yadegar.
Yadegar continued onto Main Street, turned south on Manley Road and stopped after several blocks. Five Stanislaus sheriff’s deputies and a Ripon police officer who had joined the pursuit positioned themselves on the left side and near the rear of Yadegar’s vehicle. Wall was on the side of the vehicle, nearest the front.
Another K9 deputy got his dog out and Wall was responsible for providing lethal cover to that deputy, which is why he had his gun drawn, Goyette said.
This is what they are trained to do, Goyette said. “This isn’t just a riffing, free-for-all where they figure it out as they go.”
When another deputy used a baton to break the window of Yadegar’s vehicle, Wall switched to his Taser but then saw that Yadegar was wearing a thick coat it could not penetrate, Goyette said. His attention was diverted as he again pulled out his firearm, attempted to reholster his Taser and then saw Yadegar’s car going in reverse.
Four shots fired into Yadegar’s car
Almost three seconds from the time Yadegar was driving in reverse and as she was pulling away, Wall fired four shots in rapid succession.
One of the bullets hit Yadegar’s wrist, the second entered her body just behind her left armpit and struck her heart, Himelblau said.
Goyette said Wall will testify that “at no time while he shot did he ever perceive the vehicle moving forward.”
“This is what he had to do ... take action to protect the people at the scene,” Goyette said.
But in those same moments, none of the other law enforcement officers took lethal action, Himelblau said. The Ripon officer moved out of the way and one deputy placed his hand on the back of Yadegar’s vehicle. When she started to pull forward, two of the deputies turned to go back toward their vehicles, assuming the pursuit would resume, Himelblau said.
After being shot, Yadegar’s vehicle slowly continued forward and then accelerated, likely because she lost consciousness. It crashed into the living room of a nearby house.
“That’s it; that’s the end of Evin Yadegar’s life, a shattered wrist and bullet in her heart as she crashed into a house,” all over a misdemeanor battery, Himelblau told the jury after showing them the dash camera video.
He told them there were many graphic photos taken of Yadegar after her death, but during the trial he will show them only one: the entry wound of the fatal bullet that penetrated her back.
During his opening statement, Himelblau showed jurors a photo of Yadegar before her death. She wore a red blazer, and her curly auburn hair framed her smiling face. Her husband, Hanibal Yadegar, sitting in the front row of the courtroom gallery behind the prosecutor, gazed up at the photo.
On the other side of the courtroom, several people sat behind Wall and his attorneys, including his wife.
Goyette told the jury that Wall pursued a career in law enforcement because he wanted to help people.
“Nobody feels worse that somebody passed away in this case than he does,” Goyette said.
This story was originally published November 18, 2021 at 10:00 AM.
