Thread: Jury Recommends Death For Cop Killer

www.nctimes.com

Friday, September 2, 2005
Last modified Thursday, September 1, 2005 11:20 PM PDT


Accused cop killer says he will refuse evaluation by prosecution psychiatrist

By: TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writer

VISTA ---- Heeding his attorneys' advice, an accused cop killer on Thursday told a Superior Court judge he will refuse her order to let a psychiatrist of the prosecution's choosing evaluate him for his upcoming murder trial.

Prosecutor David Rubin characterized Adrian George Camacho's refusal as "a very significant development in the case," and told Superior Court Judge Joan Weber he objected "in the strongest terms."

Thursday's pre-trial hearing in Vista for Camacho's fast-approaching trial included rulings on a host of issues, including decisions to allow jurors to see insolent jailhouse letters written by the defendant and to bar cameras from the courtroom for the lion's share of the trial.

Camacho faces the death penalty if convicted of gunning down and killing Oceanside police officer Tony Zeppetella during what began as a routine traffic stop on June 13, 2003.

His state of mind at the time of the slaying is central to the defense, and two weeks ago Camacho's attorneys told Weber the question isn't whether or not Camacho pulled the trigger, but why it happened.

Deputy District Attorney Rubin has been asking since January for permission to have his handpicked psychiatrist meet with Camacho to evaluate him for the criminal trial, which is set to begin this month.

In August, after the defense made it clear they would focus on Camacho's state of mind at the time of the slaying, Weber OK'd Rubin's request.

Defense attorneys fought the evaluation, arguing that Camacho's mental state at the time of the slaying two years ago was at issue, not his mental state now.

Camacho had heroin and methamphetamine in his system when he was arrested after a stand-off at his in-laws' home about four hours after Zeppetella was shot. The four-time felon, who suffers from depression, had also slit his wrists during the stand-off.

In court Thursday, defense attorney Kathleen Cannon told Weber that her client's refusal to meet with the prosecution's psychiatrist was based on advice from her and co-counsel William Stone.

"To shield a client with 'On the advice of counsel,' we object in the strongest terms," prosecutor Rubin told the judge.

Weber said the ultimate decision to refuse the court order fell on Camacho's shoulders alone.

Weber then asked Camacho directly if he planned to decline to meet with the doctor.

The tattooed defendant, dressed in a green jail uniform, replied, "Yes, ma'am."

Weber said that higher courts have found that defendants do not have a right to refuse such court-ordered evaluations, and that she will notify the jury of Camacho's refusal to comply.

In other issues decided Thursday, Weber agreed to allow jurors to see two jailhouse letters in which Camacho allegedly made threats against his jailers.

Rubin alleged in court documents that in one letter, Camacho made references to sending his jailers home in a "bodybag." In another, Rubin claims Camacho allegedly wrote of his ability to have his jailers killed.

Camacho's attorneys fought to keep the correspondence out of the trial, arguing that Camacho wrote the letters two months after the slaying, and that he wrote them out of frustrations with alleged harassment by his jailers.

But Rubin argued that jurors should see the letters because they show Camacho's "animosity and animus toward law enforcement."

Also on Thursday, Weber decided to bar news cameras from the courtroom during witness testimony in the upcoming criminal trial, which will run about two months.

Also not permissible for the jury's ears: any mention of Camacho's membership in a street gang or his status as an undocumented immigrant.

The first round of jury selection for Camacho's trial will begin in less than two weeks; witness testimony is expected to begin in mid-October.

Me, I have my opinion, It's frying time again.

Link to another article.

https://www.alipac.us/ftopict-8573-tony.html+zeppetella


www.signonsandiego.com

Trial set to begin in slaying of officer

Potential juror accused of comment dismissed
By Jose Luis Jiménez
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 16, 2005

A potential juror in the death-penalty trial of Adrian Camacho – charged with the murder of Oceanside police Officer Tony Zeppetella – is accused of making disparaging remarks about the slain officer's agency.

Superior Court Judge Joan Weber quizzed the man about the statements, which were allegedly made outside the courtroom in a casual conversation during jury selection for the high-profile case. The man denied the accusation that he labeled the department as incompetent.

After the brief inquiry, Deputy District Attorney David Rubin insisted the man lied and requested that the potential juror be dismissed from the case because of potential prejudice against the police.

The judge declined, explaining that she believed the potential juror, and Rubin later used one of his pre-emptive challenges to dismiss the man from the case.

The episode offers insight into the strategies employed by lawyers on the eve of Camacho's trial. Authorities say the 30-year-old is an illegal immigrant and gang member who fatally shot Zeppetella during a traffic stop on June 13, 2003.

Opening statements begin tomorrow at the Vista courthouse, and the trial is scheduled to conclude in mid-December. There are 123 potential witnesses in the case, ranging from the paramedics who tried to save the officer to members of Camacho's family.

During three weeks of jury selection, the lawyers screened hundreds of potential jurors to assemble a panel of eight women and four men. Six alternates were also seated – four men and two women.

The goal on both sides was to find individuals willing to listen to their arguments.

"The crucial thing in any trial is that the jury base their verdict on the evidence, not any preconceived notions," said Marjorie Cohn, a criminal law professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego.

Court records indicate that the prosecution is looking for jurors without a negative image of the police and who are willing to impose the death penalty.

On the defense side, attorneys want to keep their client off death row, all but admitting in previous court proceedings that he fired the fatal shots.

Lawyers for both sides declined to comment for this report.

In a 28-page jury questionnaire, potential jurors were asked about their experiences with law enforcement and whether they were satisfied with the police services in their neighborhood.

Veteran Deputy Public Defenders Kathleen Cannon and William Stone are planning to employ a mental health defense, arguing that Camacho was severely depressed when the shooting occurred. Since he was medicating himself with prescription and illegal drugs, the potent mixture placed Camacho in a mental state that led him to unintentionally kill Zeppetella, the attorneys said.

Given that argument, the lawyers sought people with an open mind to mental health issues, according to court records. A few of the topics on which the potential jurors were quizzed included whether they believed psychiatry was an exact science and if they had any opinions on mental health professionals.

If the lawyers' strategy works, the jury will find that Camacho did not deliberately plan out Zeppetella's killing, as the prosecution has argued. Instead, the panel would convict him of a lower charge, such as second-degree murder, sparing Camacho's life.

Cohn said it is a common defense tactic in death-penalty cases to narrow the jury's focus to what crime the defendant is guilty of committing.

"This is not a whodunit. This is a question of why he did it," Cohn said. "The mental state can change the level of the offense and whether or not he is guilty of the crime charged by the prosecution."

Zeppetella was shot 13 times, and one of the fatal shots came from the officer's own gun, authorities said. Camacho was arrested later that evening at his mother-in-law's home after a four-hour standoff with police.

The case has been plagued by delays as Camacho switched attorneys and at one point acted as his own lawyer.

Besides the criminal case, widow Jamie Zeppetella filed a lawsuit against Second Chance Body Armor Inc., the manufacturer of her husband's bulletproof vest. The suit argues that the Michigan-based company knew the vests – made of Zylon – degraded faster than expected and failed to warn the law enforcement officers who wore them.

Civil lawyers argue that Zeppetella may have survived had three bullets not penetrated the vest.

That trial has been postponed to June 2006 after company officials complained that they could not prepare an adequate defense without first inspecting Zeppetella's vest. The District Attorney's Office has denied the company access to the vest, which is part of the evidence in Camacho's criminal trial.

The company will be allowed to inspect the vest once Camacho's case has concluded.

www.10news.com

Trial In Fatal Shooting Of Officer Begins
Camacho Accused Of Killing Officer Zeppetella

POSTED: 8:37 am PDT October 17, 2005
UPDATED: 8:58 am PDT October 17, 2005

VISTA, Calif. -- Opening statements are scheduled Monday in the trial of a gang member accused of fatally shooting a rookie Oceanside police officer during a traffic stop more than two years ago.

If the eight-woman, four-man jury eventually convicts Adrian Camacho of murder, a penalty trial phase will be held to determine whether he'll receive a death sentence.

The proceedings could last until mid-December.

At Camacho's preliminary hearing, witnesses testified that he fired a hail of bullets toward Officer Tony Zeppetella in the parking lot of the Navy Federal Credit Union at 4180 Avenida de la Plata on June 13, 2003.

The 27-year-old officer died at a hospital, leaving behind a wife and 6-month-old son.

Camacho, 30, was arrested at his in-laws' nearby home after a four-hour standoff with SWAT officers.

Detectives later found phrases written in blood on a wall above a bathtub, including, "I'm sorry, I don't know why" and "I (heart) my wife and kids."

Camacho, a Mexican citizen, is a documented gang member who has served four 16-month prison terms for drug possession, weapons possession, receiving stolen property and evading officers.

Prosecutor David Rubin said the defendant has been deported twice but was able to make it back across the border.

The last two years have been filled with legal maneuvers, mainly from the defense side.

Proceedings were initially delayed when a public defender assigned to Camacho's case suffered serious injuries in an automobile accident.

The defendant fired the Public Defender's Office in early 2004 and attempted to represent himself for six months before giving up.

Veteran public defenders William Stone and Kathleen Cannon took over the case in July 2004 and filed numerous motions.

The attorneys failed to get the possible death penalty rescinded over an alleged failure by police to notify the Mexican consulate of the defendant's arrest in a timely manner, as called for in the Vienna Convention. They were also unable to force a change of venue.

They succeeded, however, in preventing the prosecution from introducing evidence of Camacho's gang membership during the trial. They also were able to protect the defendant's right to refuse to meet with a prosecution psychiatrist.

Camacho's mental state at the time of the shooting will play a major role in his defense.

During jury selection, attorneys said the trial would not be about who pulled the trigger, but why.

According to court documents, the defendant tested positive for heroin and methamphetamine when he was arrested and was taking prescription medication for depression.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/10 ... 110956.txt



Trial begins for accused cop killer

By: TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writer

VISTA ---- Witnesses said it simply looked like a routine traffic stop. But it quickly exploded into a gunfight between a rookie cop and a four-time convicted felon whose lawyers say he shot the officer in a drug-fueled rage after being pulled over.

On Monday, more than two years after the traffic stop, a murder trial began for documented gang member and twice-deported illegal immigrant Adrian George Camacho, the man who attorneys say shot Oceanside police Officer Tony Zeppetella in a busy credit union parking lot overlooking College Avenue in Oceanside.

Camacho, 30, has pleaded not guilty to the June 13, 2003, slaying of Zeppetella. Camacho could face the death penalty if convicted of first-degree murder and special allegations, including shooting a police officer.

That Camacho shot the young officer is not in question; Camacho's lawyers admit that he did. But they want the jury to consider why Camacho, a four-time convicted felon whose attorneys admit he had a mix of street and prescription drugs in his system that day and a loaded semiautomatic gun within arm's reach, pulled the trigger.

The defense contends that Camacho, in a psychotic state because of the drugs, just snapped.

The prosecution argues it was an ex-con's cold attempt to escape capture.

"At any cost, he was not going to be arrested," prosecutor David Rubin said during the trial's opening statements, later adding, "This is a case about one of the oldest motives in the world: to get away."

Defense attorney William Stone noted during his opening statement Monday that the jam-packed Navy Federal Credit Union, filled with military personnel on a payday, was "the least likely place a person would pull into to commit a crime."

"The evidence that is the most repulsive is also the evidence that it was not planned, not thought out, not contrived," Stone said. "This is something that was crazy."

On Monday, the first words of prosecutor Rubin's opening statements did not come from Rubin. They came instead from Zeppetella.

Rubin began by playing the last vocal transmission Zeppetella sent, a routine conversation with dispatchers indicating he was pulling over a blue Honda. On the recording, Zeppetella does not say why he's making the traffic stop.

"Two minutes from now, he would lie dying," Rubin told the jury.

On that June afternoon more than two years ago, the Honda pulled into the credit union parking lot. Zeppetella followed, witnesses said.

Cameras on the credit union's ATMs picked up some of what happened next, although the image is somewhat hazy and tucked into the background.

The still images show the blue Honda pulled into a spot directly across from the ATM. Seconds later, Zeppetella pulled up, parked his car at an angle behind the Honda, and blocked it in.

Some witnesses who were at the busy credit union ---- the lot was nearly full and the line at the ATM stood at least seven deep ---- on Monday told similar stories as they took the stand.

Many of them said they noticed Zeppetella get out of his car and approach the driver's side of the Honda. Some testified they saw what appeared to be the exchange of paperwork customary when a driver gives registration and insurance to a policeman.

None reported an argument or loud voices. It just looked like a guy getting a ticket, they said.

Witness Matthew McClure was in line at the ATM, watching the traffic stop, when he saw Zeppetella turn to walk back to his patrol car. McClure lost interest, turned away.

Suddenly, gunfire.

Three, four, maybe five pops, witnesses testified Monday. Most at first thought the noise was firecrackers.

"I saw an arm sticking out of the car firing a gun, and the police officer was falling down," testified witness David Knapp, who had been in line at the ATM.

Knapp said he saw the gun tracking the falling officer. As Knapp ran for cover, he saw the gunman get out of the car, he sad.

What followed, testified the witnesses, was an explosion of gunfire.

The man, who lawyers have said was Camacho, emptied his gun ---- all 16 rounds, Rubin said.

Blood evidence, Rubin told the jury, shows that a wounded Zeppetella tried to shoot back, that he was able to get off 14 of the 18 rounds in his gun. But a bullet ripped one of his arm bones in half.

Wounded, Zeppetella crawled toward his patrol car, Rubin said.

"The defendant is right behind him. Bang. Bang. Tracking his moves," Rubin said to a rapt jury.

One minute and 40 seconds after telling dispatch he was pulling the Honda over, Zeppetella managed to hit the distress button on his radio, Rubin said.

Camacho then walked up to the wounded officer and pistol-whipped him four times, Rubin said.

Witness Christopher Brown said he saw at least two of those hits. On Monday, using the full force of his body, he showed the jury the violent arm-over-the-head swings he saw the gunman make.

After pistol-whipping Zeppetella, Rubin said, Camacho grabbed Zeppetella's gun and shot at him with Zeppetella's four remaining bullets.

By the end, Zeppetella had suffered 13 gunshot wounds, Rubin said.

With the car Camacho was driving ---- it belonged to his sister ---- blocked by the patrol car, Camacho climbed into Zeppetella's patrol car and sped off.

Later, the police car was found idling with the door open near a subdivision not far from the credit union.

After Camacho ditched the police car, Rubin said, he ran to his mother-in-law's home nearby and broke in.

Defense attorney Stone spent some of his opening statement talking about what happened next: Camacho's "sincere attempt to take his life."

While holed up at his in-laws' home, Stone said, Camacho went into the bathroom and slit his wrists. Police caught up with Camacho and coaxed him out shortly thereafter, Stone said.

On the bathroom wall, in blood, he had written messages, including: "I (heart) my wife and kids" and "I'm sorry I don't know why" and "Help me Dr. Ordas." The message apparently referred to Dr. Dennis Ordas, a psychiatrist who was treating Camacho for drug addiction.

Stone said Camacho began taking heroin at 15 to self-medicate for what would later be diagnosed as clinical depression. At some point, Camacho also began using methamphetamine.

And still later, Camacho added the drug Paxil, an antidepressant prescribed to him, to the mix.

All three were in his system when his blood was drawn about six hours after the shooting, according to attorneys.

Testimony continues today, with more witnesses and an Oceanside police detective expected to take the stand.

The trial could run up to two months.

Hang Em High!

www.signonsandiego.com

Criminalist: Slain officer's blood in Camacho's car, shirt


SIGNONSANDIEGO NEWS SERVICES

4:18 p.m. October 24, 2005

VISTA – The DNA of an Oceanside police officer killed in a shootout with an ex-convict was found in blood stains in the accused killer's car and on a shirt, a sheriff's criminalist testified Monday.
Byron Sonnenberg also said that DNA matching Adrian Camacho – on trial for the June 13, 2003, slaying of Officer Tony Zeppetella – was found in blood stains in the officer's patrol vehicle.

The victim's DNA was found in stains inside a door frame, the driver's side of the roof and a rear quarter panel of a blue Toyota Corolla that Camacho drove to the Navy Federal Credit Union at 4180 Avenida de la Plata, Sonnenberg said.

The chances of the DNA matching someone else were 1 in 37 trillion, he said.

Sonnenberg's testimony came as the 30-year-old defendant's trial moved into its second week. A number of people who were in the credit union's parking lot have testified that Zeppetella followed Camacho into the parking lot, then went to the Corolla to collect paperwork in what seemed to be a routine traffic stop.

Zeppetella, 27, was seen stepping away from the vehicle before gunshots were heard.

Those witnesses said Camacho shot at Zeppetella, then beat him in the back of the head with his handgun before shooting him again.

Sonnenberg said he also found Zeppetella's DNA in three small bloodstains on a shirt that authorities claim Camacho was wearing at the time.

Additionally, the defendant's DNA was discovered in blood stains on the driver's floorboard and dashboard of the police cruiser, with the odds of another match set at 1 in 420 billion, Sonnenberg said.

The witnesses testified that Camacho, nursing a gunshot wound to the right leg, used the police cruiser as a getaway car.

Also taking the stand was Laura Pallos, a former Army officer who told jurors the defendant's face was "contorted" and "inhuman" as he struck the officer.

"It struck me just how angry and intensely outraged (the defendant) was," said Pallos, who drove into the parking lot as the incident was unfolding.

Zeppetella, who managed to get off 14 shots in a desperate attempt to defend himself, suffered 13 gunshot wounds, said Dr. Beth Ann Shaver, the physician who performed the autopsy.

One of the bullets penetrated the officer's upper right chest, broke his clavicle and tore through two major vessels supplying blood to the head, Shaver said.

"It's a lethal injury," Shaver said.

Another bullet, which perforated the officer's diaphragm and spleen, also was fatal, the doctor said.

Zeppetella was pronounced dead at Palomar Medical Center, leaving a wife and infant son.

Camacho was arrested about four hours after the shooting.

If jurors convict Camacho of first-degree murder, they'll sit through a second trial to determine whether to recommend the death penalty or life in prison without parole.

His two public defenders have conceded that their client was the gunman. But in a bid to avoid the death penalty, the defense claims the shooting was not premeditated.

The trial is scheduled to last until mid-December.

www.nctimes.com

Wife: Camacho 'hysterical' after fatal shooting

By: TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writer

VISTA ---- Moments after a gunbattle left a police officer dying in an Oceanside parking lot, the accused gunman called his wife and was "hysterical," the man's wife testified Thursday.

"He said that he was at my mom's house, that a police officer was hurt and that he wanted to die," a tearful Stacey Camacho said during her emotional testimony in her husband's murder trial.

She is married to Adrian George Camacho, the San Marcos man accused of gunning down Oceanside police officer Tony Zeppetella during what began as a routine traffic stop on June 13, 2003. After the attack, Camacho broke into and holed up in his mother-in-law's nearby home, then slit his wrists.


When police coaxed Camacho out of the upscale home four hours later, investigators found Camacho's blood in a bathtub and messages to his wife and psychiatrist written in blood on the bathroom wall.

Stacey Camacho testified Thursday that she was at work when her husband called her in a frantic state.

"He sounded really scared," the woman said through tears. "I've never heard him like that before."

Stacey Camacho said her husband was crying and "hysterical" during the phone call.

"He told me that he wanted to say good-bye to me and the kids," she said. "He loved us and he was going to kill himself."

Stacey Camacho said she did not remember her husband using the word "shot" in reference to what he had done to the police officer. Asked on cross-examination if she told her mother that her husband had said he was scared and had shot an officer, Stacey Camacho said, "right."

Stacey Camacho also testified about her husband's bizarre behavior in the time before the shooting, telling jurors that he had been hearing voices and reacting to phantom sounds.

She said her husband thought she had hidden cameras in her platform shoes, and that he would cut up the headbands she wore in her hair out of fear that they were wired so she could spy on him.

Camacho's attorneys admit Camacho, 30, shot the 27-year-old rookie officer, but contend that the surprise attack came as part of a drug-fueled psychotic episode for the ex-con, who had a mix of street and prescription drugs in his system the night of the gunfight.

Camacho could face the death penalty if the jury convicts him of first-degree murder and attached special circumstances in Zeppetella's slaying, including killing a police officer and committing a murder to avoid arrest.

On Thursday, the defense began presenting its case to the jury. Stacey Camacho was the fourth witness called.

Stacey Camacho said her husband has long had a heroin problem, and that he was hospitalized for addiction and suicidal tendencies a few times in the year before the violent gunbattle that left Zeppetella with 13 gunshot wounds, bleeding to death in a crowded bank parking lot.

On the night of the shooting, Adrian Camacho tested positive for heroin, methamphetamine and the prescription anti-depressant Paxil.

Stacey Camacho testified that while she knew of her husband's drug problem, he told her that he didn't keep any drugs in the house. She also said she was unaware of her husband being involved in any drug-selling activity, and that she would not have tolerated that.

She testified that she was unaware that he had a gun.

Stacey Camacho ---- whose maiden name is also Camacho, as a matter of coincidence ---- said the couple met when she was 16 and married when she was 18. They have two children, now 6 and 7 years old.

She meekly shot a quick smile at her husband during a quiet moment early in her testimony.

Thursday marked Stacey Camacho's first time in the courtroom during the trial. Although she has attended many of the pretrial hearings, she, like all witnesses in the case, has been barred from the courtroom during the trial until after her testimony. Still, Stacey Camacho and her mother have opted to be at courthouse every day of the trial. They sit quietly on a bench in the hallway outside of the courtroom.

Both Stacey Camacho and her mother, Lorraine Camacho, testified for the defense on Thursday.

Lorraine Camacho said that on the night of the shooting her "hysterical" daughter called her and told her Adrian Camacho "had done something terrible." Lorraine Camacho said Stacey Camacho asked her mother to go home immediately.

On the way home, Lorraine Camacho said, she saw police helicopters and heard them blaring messages that police were looking for a man matching Adrian Camacho's description. She said she "starting putting it together." It was then, she said, that she told police in the area they might be looking for her son-in-law ---- and that he was probably in her home.

Also taking the stand for the defense Thursday was Dennis Ordas, the psychiatrist who began treating Camacho for heroin addiction about 13 months before the attack on Zeppetella.

Among the messages written in blood on the bathroom tile was "Help me Ordas."

Ordas testified that Camacho's wife was, at first, the driving force behind Camacho's move to seek treatment. Ordas also said that, during the year before the attack, Camacho's attitude toward recovery from his addiction was "highly motivated."

"He kept coming back, sometimes willingly, and other times begrudgingly," Ordas said.

During that time, the longest Camacho had been able to stay off heroin was 10 days, the doctor said, adding that Camacho's drug-free periods generally lasted three to five days.

Ordas said that when he met with Camacho in jail the morning after the shooting, he was "pretty out of it, mentally beat up, confused."

In the months following the attack, Ordas said, Camacho began to suffer nightmares and overwhelming anxiety about what had happened.

Imagine how "hysterical" he'll be when he gets the chair.

www.signonsandiego.com

Testimony ties Camacho's deadly actions to drugs


SIGNONSANDIEGO NEWS SERVICES

1:45 p.m. October 31, 2005

VISTA – An ex-con accused of killing an Oceanside police officer following a traffic stop suffered from two drug-fueled mental conditions, a psychiatrist testified today.

Adrian Camacho was dealing with the abuse of two drugs, and the delirium from having taken the substances, when he gunned down Officer Tony Zeppetella on June 13, 2003, Dr. Pablo Stewart testified.

Stewart took the stand in the second day of the defense's case. Camacho's legal team, while conceding that he was the gunman, is seeking to prove that the shooting in the parking lot of the Navy Federal Credit Union was unplanned.

If the jury makes a premeditated murder finding, a second trial will be held on whether to give Camacho the death penalty.

Stewart, who runs a consulting practice in San Francisco, was hired to review voluminous psychological records and twice interviewed the 30-year-old defendant.

"In June of 2003, it was clear (Camacho) was suffering from poly-substance abuse," Stewart said. "(The defendant) was abusing both heroin and methamphetamine at the same time."

The condition is a disease with a genetic component that makes someone more likely to develop an addiction, Stewart said.

Camacho's delirium stemmed from mixing methamphetamine and Paxil, an anti- anxiety medication that was prescribed to him, the psychiatrist said.

The defendant's level of awareness "waxed and waned," creating memory problems, the psychiatrist said.

Prosecutor David Rubin told jurors in his opening argument that the defendant knew he was facing near-certain prison time when he was pulled over because a gun and drug paraphernalia were in his car.

Camacho also had a "special malice" toward law enforcement, Rubin said.

According to court records, Camacho is a documented gang member and illegal immigrant who served four 16-month prison terms for drug possession, weapons possession, possession of stolen property and evading officers.

A number of witnesses testified that they watched Zeppetella collect paperwork from the defendant, then heard gunshots when the 27-year-old officer stepped away.

Zeppetella managed to get off 14 rounds, but stopped shooting when bullets broke his right arm in two places, Rubin said.

Camacho then beat Zeppetella in the back of the head with a gun, fired at him again when he saw the officer's head move, then drove off in the patrol car, the prosecutor said.

Camacho was arrested at his in-law's house about four hours after the shooting.

His wife, Stacey, testified last week that he "wasn't making any sense" when she visited him briefly at the Oceanside Police Department several hours after his arrest.

The defendant's personal psychiatrist, Dennis Ordas, said he saw Camacho in jail the next morning, and he was "out of it."

Defense attorney William Stone said he might wrap up his case tomorrow.