Suspect in Modesto bar shooting arrested. Does he have a case for self defense?
The suspect in a fatal shooting at a bar over the weekend was arrested Thursday night after he was found hiding in a garage following a nearly six-hour standoff in southeast Modesto.
Pete Warda, 41, was arrested on suspicion of murder in the Sunday night shooting of 22-year-old Thomas Hinchman in the parking lot of the CR2 Bar and Billiards at Oakdale Road and Sylvan Avenue.
He was taken into custody hours after he told a Bee reporter, in an exclusive interview while he was still free, that he was going to turn himself in.
A SWAT team served a search warrant at a home on Yosemite Meadows Drive, east of Claus Road, at about 5:30 p.m., according to Modesto Police Sgt. Kalani Souza.
After several hours of attempting to contact Warda using a loud speaker and by phone, SWAT entered the home and found it empty. While doing follow up in the neighborhood, Warda was found hiding in the garage of a different home.
Yosemite Meadows was the fourth location officers searched for Warda. Detectives recovered firearms at the home and are trying to determine if any of them were tied to the homicide.
After Modesto Police served search warrants at a home in Village I and his place of business, Luigi’s Pizza on Yosemite Boulevard, and while they searched his family member’s home a few miles away on Japonica Way, Warda told The Bee by phone that he planned to turn himself in, but never did.
He also gave his account of what transpired, claiming he acted in self defense as Hinchman and another man kicked and punched him while he was on the ground.
He said the altercation started after he told the men to stop leaning on his truck, then Hinchman threw something at the truck as he tried to drive away.
“I didn’t do anything else besides stop the threat on my life,” Warda said.
His version of event is different from what Hinchman’s mother told The Bee and what Modesto Police originally reported.
Melissa Wright, who was not at the scene of the shooting, said Hinchman’s friend told her the suspect lost it when he he saw him leaning against his truck.
According to the friend, she said, Hinchman came between the two to apologize for leaning on the car and to defuse the situation.
Police would not comment on either version of events and have said their initial account that the suspect fired as he was leaving in a vehicle changed as investigators continued to process evidence and sort through witness statements.
Does Warda have a self-defense case?
“He is not allowed to use killing force to protect his property, but is allowed to use reasonable force,” said professor Michael Vitiello, who specializes in criminal cases and court procedure at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. “He is allowed to use deadly force if he is threatened with deadly force or great bodily injury.”
Warda claims surveillance video from the bar will corroborate his version of events. The police won’t say whether surveillance video is part of their evidence.
Vitiello said a video would be key in either Warda’s defense or prosecution. “Absence some good videotape, what it really will come down to is a credibility battle.”
Warda has a long criminal record and wasn’t legally allowed to carry a gun. In addition to murder, he was arrested on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition. He also had warrant for his arrest in an unrelated case for drugs and weapon charges.
If Warda was provoked, as he claimed, and the altercation was mutual combat, Vitiello said that could result in a conviction on a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter.
Warda is being held without bail at the Stanislaus County Jail. He had not been charged by the District Attorney’s Office as of Friday afternoon.
This story was originally published February 22, 2019 at 9:19 AM.
