Case of Modesto tattoo shop owner accused of murder goes to the jurors
During his trial this month, no one disputed Jeremy Don Fennell shot and killed a homeless man behind his business in March of 2019.
He committed an act of homicide.
A jury will decide the type of homicide he committed; whether it was in self-defense and therefore justified; an act of deliberate, premeditated murder; or something in between.
The prosecution and the defense presented their cases on both ends during closing arguments Wednesday and Thursday. The case went to the jury just before noon on Thursday.
Fennell shot 25-year-old Lawrence Walker following a brief encounter behind Sin Cal Industries, Fennell’s tattoo and body piercing business at 3117 McHenry Ave.
It started when Fennell and his wife arrived at the business around noon on March 15, 2019, when Walker and his wife, Jessica Estrada, were sitting on a sidewalk in the back.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Jeff Laugero told jurors Fennell couldn’t have acted in self-defense because he was the initial aggressor and continued to be aggressive toward Walker.
He said Fennell pulled into the parking stall directly in front of where Walker was seated instead of any of the other empty stalls around him. He got a gun – for which he had a permit to conceal carry – from his glove compartment, approached them and talked to them about leaving.
Testimony of the events that ensued varies. It was captured on a security camera but there was no audio.
Fennell testified earlier this week that he informed them he was opening for business soon and asked them to collect their belongings and leave. He said that’s when Walker told him he wasn’t afraid of his gun; that both Walker and Estrada began yelling profanities at him; and that Walker “popped up” from the ground. Fennell said he repeatedly told Walker to stop coming toward him and fired once when Walker stepped off the curb.
Estrada testified the handle of Fennell’s gun was visible from a sweatshirt he had wrapped around it and tucked under his arm.
She said Fennell told them, “You need to get your homeless s--- and get the f--- out of here.” and that Walker responded, “Just because you’ve got a gun doesn’t give you the right to be a d---.”
Laugero said Fennell was likely offended by the words, which escalated into the shooting.
“He brought a gun to an argument and he used that gun to stop an argument,” Laugero said.
He said any reasonable person would have walked into their business and called the police to get Walker and Estrada to leave if they refused.
He said self-defense doesn’t apply because the law requires that a defendant must have reasonably believed his life was in danger.
Fennell said in his testimony he worried Walker might have had a knife and that he lunged at him right before he fired, but Laugero said Fennell never told police those things or articulated any verbal threats made by Walker.
Laugero said Fennell’s justification for shooting Walker in the heart were unreasonable; he created a danger in his own mind based on his stereotype of homeless people with drug addictions, not anything that happened that day.
Statements about homeless
In his statement to an officer at the scene following the shooting, Fennell said, “All I know is the fact that these guys carry all kinds of diseases. They carry all kinds of s--- that I can’t cure my human body from.”
Laugero pointed to testimony that the statement was consistent with other disparaging remarks Fennell made about homeless people on a social media post and to police officers who investigated vandalism and break ins at his business prior to the shooting.
Six days before the shooting, a post of Fennell’s Instagram account advised people to stop giving homeless people donations because the items only end up as trash in the back of businesses like his that “real humans with real lives” have to clean up.
The post goes on to say that all the homeless want are “... back packs to steal s--- and hoodies to hide their pathetic nasty faces while they do those crimes .... If we can not kill them all like we can other pests then we must not feed the wild drug addicts.”
Those comments, Laugero said, point to premeditation.
“He talks about it in social media posts just days before he carries it out,” said the prosecutor.
He said it doesn’t matter that Fennell hadn’t met Walker until that day. He admitted he assumed Walker and Estrada were homeless drug addicts.
“His premeditation applies to anyone who is homeless and struggling with addiction and found themselves in that situation,” Laugero said. “That combination is deadly if you are confronted by Mr. Fennel because Mr. Fennel for over a year has made statements about ... ‘druggie bush people’ ... what they are doing to his business, his livelihood, to society in general.”
Argument for self defense
Fennell’s defense attorney Kirk McAllister in his closing arguments said, “There was a lot of cutting and pasting. There was not just the facts. It was a real picking and choosing of facts by the prosecution and by the police.”
He said some of the comments made by his client about homeless people were right after his business was burglarized and vandalized.
McAllister said the Instagram post doesn’t say Fennell wants to exterminate homeless people, but that you can’t and that people’s attempts to help them are only aiding in the problem.
“Is the language strong sometimes, yeah,” McAllister said to the jury.
But he pointed out that even the witness who brought the post to the attention of police testified that you can’t judge a person by one post.
He said the prosecution is painting Fennell as a bad person while ignoring Walker’s and Estrada’s history of drug use and violence, which includes convictions for assaults on other people.
Toxicology results showed Walker had methamphetamine in his system. Estrada said they used heroin the day of the shooting and had last used methamphetamine the day before.
“Meth use contributes to (Walker’s) aggressive behavior,” McAllister told the jury. “He had meth in his system ... you can determine whether or not he was showing symptoms.”
“(Estrada) abandoned her children so she could run the streets with Mr Walker. Do you think she wouldn’t lie for him?,” McAllister asked the jury. “And she’s a convicted felon. That’s the prosecution’s star witness.”
The jury should consider her credibility, he said.
The only thing she did say that was consistent with the testimony of both Fennell and an independent witness who was waiting for the tattoo shop to open, was that Fennell repeatedly told Walker to stop; to not come any closer, McAllister said.
Fennell testified that he lunged at him but Modesto Police Detective Joshua Grant in his arrest affidavit called it a side step to the left. The jury was shown the surveillance video several times during the trial and have access to it during their deliberations.
McAllister said this is a plain case of self-defense. He pointed to testimony by a clinical psychologist who specializes in police and forensic psychology who said Fennell experienced many of the same “human factors” that police officers do in use of force situations like tunnel vision, dry mouth and time distortion.
He ended his closing arguments by saying, “What ills do you think are going to happen when Mr. Walker advances (on Fennell)? Is he going to shake his hand? Is he going to give him some Girl Scout cookies? No! He’s going to beat him to a pulp and then take his weapon.”
The jury began deliberations shortly before noon on Thursday. They could convict Fennell of murder, of a lesser charge of manslaughter or acquit him if they decide he acted in self-defense.
Due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases throughout the state and across the county, the Stanislaus County Superior Courthouse is closed to anyone who is not taking part in a legal matter unless approved for access by the order of a judge.
As a result, criminal proceedings are being live streamed on YouTube. During this trial the judge and witnesses who were testifying were visible but not the defendant or counsel, nor the surveillance video or any of the evidence that was presented.
This story was originally published December 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
