This is the guy who shot the CA cop 13 times in 2003.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/02 ... 101136.txt

VISTA ---- Adrian Camacho, who gunned down a 27-year-old rookie Oceanside police officer in a bank parking lot in 2003, was sentenced to death Tuesday.

Judge Joan Weber upheld a recommendation from a jury of seven women and five men who voted that Camacho should die for killing Officer Tony Zeppetella.

"The weight of the evidence supports the jury's recommendation of death," Weber said before announcing her decision. "I do find that Mr. Camacho's remorse ... was too little, too late.

"The evidence shows this defendant was cold and calculated. Officer Zeppetella was crawling away from the defendant and yet the defendant kept shooting, shooting shooting."

Her comments drew muffled sobs from Zeppetella's mother, Renate Zeppetella, and the officer's widow, Jamie Zeppetella, who buried her face her face in her hands and sobbed.

Camacho was convicted of first-degree murder in October for the June 13, 2003, slaying Zeppetella in the crowded parking lot off College Boulevard in Oceanside.

On Nov. 30, jurors voted to recommend that Weber sentence Camacho to death. The judge had discretion over whether to accept the recommendation or give Camacho life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"The horror of this crime is in the details," the judge said. "Thirteen bullets."

The decision will result in an automatic appeal.

Camacho, who had a loaded gun and drugs in his car when he was pulled over by Zeppetella on a routine traffic stop, shot the officer 13 times. He also pistol-whipped Zeppetella, who fired back before Camacho took his gun.

There were dozens of witnesses to the slaying at Navy Federal Credit Union at Avenida de la Plate and College Boulevard. During his trial, Camacho's attorneys admitted their client killed Zeppetella. But they contended he was in the throes of a drug-induced delirium when he pulled the trigger.

After the gun battle, Camacho stole Zeppetella's patrol car and fled to his mother-in-law's nearby home in an upscale Oceanside neighborhood. There, he slit his wrists and scrawled apologetic messages on a bathroom wall before surrendering four hours later.

Prosecuting attorneys argued that Camacho, 30, an ex-con and documented gang member, attacked Zeppetella, because he had a gun and drugs and did not want to be sent back to prison.

Camacho, who was born in Mexico but grew up in North County, was living in the U.S. illegally. Jurors were not told about his immigration status, nor that Camacho had been caught in the country twice before and faced up to 20 years in jail if found living in the U.S. again.

The defense pointed to Camacho's battle with a longtime heroin addiction, and pointed out that Camacho's blood, drawn six hours after the shootout, contained a mix of heroin, methamphetamine and the prescription anti-depressant Paxil.

One of his two attorneys, public defender Kathleen Cannon, called Camacho's suicide attempt as a sign of his remorse during Tuesday's hearing.

At one point, she walked behind Camacho and put her hands on his arms.

"This is a human being," she said. "He's a father, he's a husband."

As Cannon was speaking, Jamie Zepetella got up and left the courtroom.

Cannon argued that since they day they got the case, she and Camacho's other attorney, public defender William Stone, had concerns that "the community outcry ... was going to completely overrun the fairness in this case."

But Deputy District Attorney David Rubin said Camacho never showed real remorse and that the jury was correct in rejecting that argument as one reason why he shouldn't be put to death.

Jurors said after the monthlong trial in Vista Superior Court that the brutality of the crime and the number of times Zeppetella was shot caused them to decide Camacho should die.

During the gun battle, Camacho emptied his own semiautomatic, then took Zeppetella's gun and continued to fire at the mortally wounded officer.

According to testimony, Camacho probably fired the first shot as the officer stood at Camacho's car window. Camacho got off about five shots from his fully loaded semiautomatic pistol before the officer could return fire, witnesses said.

Already bleeding to death, Zeppetella fell to the ground and fired back, striking Camacho in the leg as Camacho got out of his car.

Camacho then pumped more bullets into Zeppetella, one of them striking the officer's upper arm and severing the bone. Prosecutor David Rubin said that, from that point, Zeppetella was probably no longer able to shoot back.

Witnesses testified that Camacho emptied his gun as the wounded Zeppetella tried to crawl for cover. Camacho then pistol-whipped Zeppetella and stole his gun, firing the final shots into Zeppetella with the officer's weapon, according to witnesses.

The last four shots of the gun battle can be heard on a 911 call made by a witness, a woman who told police dispatchers that an officer was shot and that the gunman was fleeing in the officer's patrol car. Squealing tires can be heard on the 911 recording.

Police traced Camacho to his mother-in-law's home and coaxed him from it about four hours after the shooting following a brief negotiation.

Zeppetella was hired by the Oceanside Police Department on May 13, 2002, and graduated from the San Diego Regional Police Academy in October of that year. The U.S. Navy veteran had worked with a training officer for five months before being given his own patrol vehicle.