Suspect in Stanislaus deputy shooting: a calculated killer or delusional, irrational man?

The question isn’t whether David Machado fatally shot Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Deputy Dennis Wallace in the early morning of Nov. 13. 2016.

What jurors in Machado’s murder trial have to determine is whether the man who fired those two shots was a calculated killer, who knew there was a warrant for his arrest and was determined to “shoot it out” with police rather than return to prison or an irrational, mentally unbalanced man who acted impulsively in the heat of the moment.

Jurors will continue deliberations on Monday after the five-day trial concluded on Friday afternoon.

Wallace, 53, was a 20-year veteran of the sheriff’s department when, on routine patrol, he came upon a white van at the Fox Grove Fishing Access just outside Hughson that morning.

The dispatch recording from that day was played. Stanislaus Regional dispatcher Angela Kent told Wallace on the radio that the vehicle came back stolen and that there was an officer safety bulletin on Machado.

Wallace responded but she couldn’t understand what he said, Kent testified during the trial. After that, she couldn’t raise Wallace on the radio, despite trying at least a half-dozen times.

Several deputies were immediately sent to the scene. First to arrive was Kristian Torres, who got there within about five minutes.

“When I made that right turn straight ahead of me I saw a body on the ground,” Torres testified. “Dennis Wallace was laying on his back; his head had a pool of blood.”

Torres looked in Wallace’s patrol vehicle and saw a registration and license on the patrol vehicle laptop. He then grabbed his rifle in case the suspect remained in the area.

In the meantime, Deputy District Attorney Sam Luzadas said during the trial, Machado fled, carjacked a man and woman in Ceres and attempted to carjack a woman in Lindsay, a small town in Tulare County, before he was captured.

Acquaintances of Machado’s testified that he had seemed to deteriorate mentally and physically in recent months, and that they believed he was using drugs. His mother, whose van he had allegedly stolen when Wallace came upon him that morning, testified that Machado was “depressed and delusional”.

“The day before, he came to my house in an extremely agitated, delusional state of mind,” she said. “He told me that he was a US marshal on leave.”

Suspect David Machado ready to ‘shoot it out’

Others testified that Machado, who had a warrant out for his arrest for failure to appear on a felony case, had told them he would “shoot it out” with police before going back to prison.

Defense attorney Marcus Mumford in his closing arguments urged jurors to find Machado, now 42, guilty of second-degree murder, saying that the defendant did not plan to kill Wallace.

Mumford pointed out that Wallace’s patrol car lights were on, so Machado clearly knew an officer was behind him.

“Why does he not shoot Deputy Wallace the moment he walked up?” Mumford said. “Does he do that? No. He provides his license and registration of the vehicle.”

Mumford also said if Machado was determined to shoot it out with police he would have done so when officers captured him in Lindsay.

“You saw the video,” he told jurors. “You know he had his hands up. Mr. Machado told them, ‘I don’t want to die’.

“So clearly Mr. Machado had no intention of shooting it out with police. He acted irrationally and impulsively and because of that he did not commit first degree murder.”

Luzadas in his closing said Machado’s actions before and after the shooting show that he knew what he was doing.

“What happened in that parking lot was a planned execution,” Luzadas said. “It was not some rash decision he made. He had decided already he was not going to go back to jail..”

The defendant knew what he was doing. And I’m confident you will find the defendant guilty not of second degree murder but first degree murder.”

Machado has pleaded not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity. If the jury convicts him, they will then decide if he lacked the capacity to act with criminal intent at the time.

This story was originally published March 27, 2021 at 4:00 AM.