‘I feared for their lives.’ Stanislaus deputy describes fatal shooting of Modesto woman
The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s deputy on trial for voluntary manslaughter in a 2017 on-duty shooting said he feared for the lives of fellow officers when he opened fire on a woman who had led them on a pursuit to Ripon.
Justin Wall, 29, took the stand in San Joaquin County court on Wednesday in the second week of the trial.
Others testifying this week included a forensic expert who shed light on Wall’s contention that he thought the car was moving backward when he fired his gun and the Stanislaus County sheriff at the time of the incident.
About 16 of Wall’s family and friends sat in the the audience of the courtroom on the eighth floor of the San Joaquin County Courthouse in Stockton on Wednesday to watch him testify.
On the other side of the aisle was Hanibal Yadegar, widower of the woman Wall shot, Evin Olsen Yadegar, and several friends. Hanibal Yadegar sued Stanislaus County over the incident; the lawsuit was settled for $7 million.
Wall was one of several deputies who, on Feb. 26, 2017, responded to a report that a woman assaulted a security guard at a hotel in Salida. A deputy spotted Evin Yadegar driving a silver Volkswagen Jetta and pulled her over but she drove away before the deputy got to her window. A slow-speed pursuit ensued.
As a K9 deputy, Wall was assigned a take-home vehicle. His shift ended at 3 a.m. and he and his K9 Dexo were on their way home when he heard the pursuit begin on the radio.
Wall testified that it was his responsibility and the expectation of his superiors that K9 deputies respond to priority calls, including pursuits.
Adam Christianson, who was Stanislaus County sheriff at the time, testified Tuesday that the duty of a K9 deputy to respond depends on how many other K9 handlers are available, but he generally would have expected as many as possible answer the call. Christianson retired to Montana.
“He chose to respond, and there’s no prohibition against that,” Christianson said.
On cross examination by Chief Deputy District Attorney Robert Himelblau, Wall acknowledged that there were three other K9 deputies working that night and, when shown a map, that he drove 10 miles from his location east of Riverbank to join the pursuit in Salida.
Yadegar took the Main Street offramp in Ripon. She stopped briefly at the end of the offramp, long enough for Wall and Michael Victorino, also a K9 deputy, to get out of their vehicles. Victorino had his K9 out and Wall was alongside him with a raised firearm, providing lethal coverage per their training, according to testimony.
Yedegar drove away again but stopped several blocks later. Other law enforcement stopped behind her when she pulled over but Wall pulled in front of her vehicle.
“The point was to block her path and prevent her from continuing the pursuit,” Wall testified, but he hadn’t blocked it entirely.
During cross examination, Wall acknowledged he could have done a better job blocking the Jetta’s path, but he believed his SUV was pulled further forward at the time.
He and Victorino assumed the same position to the left of Yadegar’s vehicle as on the previous stop, Victorino with his dog and Wall with his firearm drawn.
More deputies arrived, some also on the left side of the Jetta but closer to the rear. Ripon Officer Richard Francis was on the right rear side of the Jetta.
They were yelling at her to show her hands and get out of the vehicle. Wall holstered his gun shortly before another deputy used his baton to break the driver’s side window.
He got out a Taser, hoping he could use it to gain compliance and get Yadegar out of the vehicle.
But then he saw the Jetta moving in reverse.
“It scared me because I knew there were officers behind the vehicle.” Wall testified. “I feared for their lives.”
Wall said during cross examination officers are trained not to stand directly behind a vehicle in case it might back up and hit them, but the car’s movement was unexpected and surprised him. He saw motion from the other officers and wasn’t sure if they had been struck.
He tried to re-holster his Taser but couldn’t. The Taser was in his left hand at his side when he pulled out his firearm with his right hand and fired four at Yadegar.
At that time Yadegar was driving forward, away from law enforcement.
Wall testified that he never perceived the vehicle moving forward. If he had, “I would have stopped shooting” because there was no longer a need, Wall said.
He said his training on use of deadly force taught him to fire three to five rounds, then reassess the situation. It was then that he saw the Jetta moving forward, he testified.
Himelblau noted in the video footage, Wall lunges forward toward the car as he shoots and appears to be following Yadegar’s forward movements.
“Your head, eyes, body, legs are moving forward because at that moment, you perceive the car to be moving forward, is that correct?” Himelblau asked.
Wall said this wasn’t the case, and he still believed the car was reversing as he fired.
Following the shooting, Wall gave a voluntary statement to authorities conducing the criminal investigation.
Before his interview, he was given the opportunity to watch the dash cameras video that captured the shooting. It wasn’t until he viewed it that he saw he fired at Yadegar as she was driving away, he said.
Goyette asked why he didn’t just tell investigators he fired at her because he feared she would escape and endanger the public. Wall said that wasn’t how he perceived it.
Wall’s testimony started with Goyette asking about his personal life.
Wall said he is married; when Goyette asked if he has children Wall choked up. A long pause followed before he answered that he has 3-year-old twins.
Wall testified that he grew up in a law enforcement family, his father was a deputy and he started his career as a Sheriff’s Department explorer at the age of 17.
“I was raised with a servant’s heart,” he testified. “I felt it was the right career path for me.”
Wall began working as a deputy sheriff in 2013 and became a K9 handler in 2015. Out on bail, he remains employed by the Sheriff’s Department working in a modified, ‘unarmed support capacity,’ according to the department spokesman.
Asked about his K9 Dexo, Wall wiped his eyes before answering that the dog briefly worked with another handler before being retired to live with him and his family.
Jeff Martin, a retired police officer and expert in use of force, “human factors” and forensic video analysis, said Wall’s reaction time was within the expected range given the circumstances.
Using additional video analysis tools, he determined Yadegar’s vehicle was in reverse for less than a second and that there were about 2.7 seconds from the time the Jetta began to reverse to when when Wall fired the first shot.
Between those two events, Wall’s brain was working to process the scene and decide how to act, Martin said.
“If that’s when the shot was fired, ...the decision to fire was made a long time ago,” Martin said.
Wall appears to look down briefly around this time in the video, and that “disruption in observation” could have delayed how quickly the deputy realized the car’s direction had changed, Martin said.
His analysis also included an interview with Wall in 2019 and an inspection of the shooting site.
Deputies Taylor Knight and Fernando Gomez and Ripon Officer Richard Francis, who were near the rear of the Jetta but to the sides, have all testified that they feared for their safety when Yadegar backed up slightly in their direction.
