Thread: OCEANSIDE POLICE OFFICER SHOT DEAD : 20 DECEMBER 2006

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February 26, 2008

Defense attorney: Police coerced teen to confess to killing OPD officer

By: TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writer

Meki Gaono and two other teens face murder, other charges

VISTA -- The confession made by a teenager accused of fatally shooting Oceanside policeman Dan Bessant was "coerced and involuntary" and thus should not be used as evidence, the teenager's attorney argued in recent court filings.

Defense attorney William Stone said his client, Meki Gaono, was cold and tired to the point of repeatedly losing consciousness during an overnight interrogation in the hours after Bessant's slaying on Dec. 20, 2006.

"Meki was no match for the detectives that interrogated him around the clock," Stone wrote.

He also said officers "unabashedly" ignored Gaono's rights, and did not read him his rights -- including the right to remain silent -- until hours into a lengthy interrogation.

Prosecutors have said Gaono told police that he peered at Bessant through the sighting scope on a rifle and shot at the officer.

Prosecutors have not filed a response to the motion in court, but said they plan to do so by Wednesday.

Gaono is one of three teens accused as gunmen in the surprise shooting attack on Bessant shortly after Bessant arrived to give a fellow officer backup during a routine traffic stop in a northeast Oceanside neighborhood plagued by gang violence.

Gaono was 17 at the time of the slaying. Also accused as gunmen are Penifoti "P.J." Taeotui and Jose Compre, who were both 16 when Bessant was killed.

Stone said in the motion, filed two weeks ago, that police forced Gaono from his home at gunpoint about two hours after the early evening shooting.

Police left the teenager sitting out in the cold wearing shorts, but with no shirt or shoes on, for a few hours, although they at one point allowed a family member to wrap him in a blanket, according to Stone's motion.

Once at the station, police refused to let Gaono sleep, Stone wrote, and refused to let him end the interrogation or speak to family members.

Stone said his client was unsophisticated and had had little prior contact with the criminal justice system.

Gaono, according to the motion, gave a number of statements, and at one point told police that he had simultaneously fired both a rifle and a revolver at Bessant and others at the traffic stop.

"The prohibition against the use of coerced confessions stems from deep-rooted principles that are fundamental to our values, system of government and to the rule of law in a free and just society," Stone wrote.

Fourteen months have passed since the shooting, but the case is not very far along in the court process.

The first major hearing is set for March 4. The trio of suspects will be in court for a preliminary hearing, at the end of which the judge will determine if there is enough evidence to send any them on to face trial.

-- Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 631-6624 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/02 ... _25_08.txt

Details in shooting of Oceanside officer emerge

By: TERI FIGUEROA -- Staff Writer

VISTA ---- Not long after sniper bullets began flying, Oceanside policeman Dan Bessant was incoherent as he slumped against the tire panel at the front end of a patrol car, a police detective testified Tuesday morning.

Officer Dan Bessant was "gurgling, gasping for air, saliva coming out of his mouth," Oceanside police detective Sylvia O'Brien testified before a packed Vista courtroom. "He was not responsive."

O'Brien, the lead investigator probing the fatal shooting of Bessant, was relaying statements made to her by Officer Karina Pina, who was with Bessant when he was shot.

Few details have trickled out since a bullet felled Bessant shortly after he arrived to give Pina backup in the early evening hours of Dec. 20, 2006, during a traffic stop in a northeast Oceanside neighborhood with a history of gang violence.

Bessant was shot in his left armpit and died later that evening. Investigators believe the fatal shot, which struck Bessant near the edge of his bullet-resistant vest, was fired from about a half-block away.

Prosecutors have said investigators found a number of shell casings near the mailbox in front of the home of one of the teens charged in the killing.

The three teenage gang members charged with murdering Bessant were in court Tuesday for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to send them onto trial.

Meki Walker Gaono, 19, Penifoti Taeotui, 17, and Jose Compre, 17, are each charged as adults. All three have pleaded not guilty and remain in custody on $5 million bail. If convicted, they face life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Security was tight for the hearing with observers required to pass through metal detectors set up outside the courtroom door ---- an added layer of security. Visitors to the courthouse are already required to pass through metal detectors at the front entrance to the facility.

Inside the courtroom, a half-dozen deputies kept watch, with more stationed outside.

The three teens listened in court as O'Brien related Pina's account of the shooting.

O'Brien said Pina told her she was with Bessant, standing near the back of her patrol vehicle and writing a traffic ticket when shots whizzed by, prompting she and Bessant to make eye contact.

Bessant said something to Pina, but she was unsure of what he said, O'Brien said. The stricken officer then made his way to the front of her patrol car and ended up slumped against a front panel.

The slain officer's father, Steve Bessant, sat motionless as he listened to the testimony.

A three-year member of the Police Department, Bessant was married and the father of a 2-month-old son when he died.

www.nctimes.com

Detective: Teen gave details of fatal shooting

By: TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writer
Hearing continues in slaying of Oceanside police officer Dan Bessant

VISTA -- Two teenagers sat behind bars, suspected of killing Oceanside police Officer Dan Bessant, while a third teenage gang member laid low.

And while Penifoti "P.J." Taeotui was in hiding, he told his buddies just what had happened when he and two fellow gang members killed Bessant, a detective testified Monday before a Superior Court judge who will decide whether the teens should face trial.

Taeotui, Meki Gaono, 19, and Jose Compre, 17, are each charged as adults with murder in Bessant's death.

The three gang members have pleaded not guilty and remain in custody on $5 million bail. If convicted, each faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

In the two days following the deadly Dec. 20, 2006, attack on Bessant, Taeotui confessed to friends that he, Gaono and Compre had been drinking beer when they spotted a traffic stop down the street.

The three "essentially decided to test their guns," Oceanside police Detective Damon Smith said Taeotui told friends.

Taeotui's buddies -- two teenagers and a young man -- kept the confession quiet from police for three months, Smith said. But police searched their homes in March 2007 and arrested them after finding drugs and stolen property.

They took the trio to the police station, put them in separate rooms and questioned them about the attack on Bessant.

Police warned the three that they could face charges for helping the teens suspected of killing Bessant, prompting them to share what Taeotui had told them, Smith testified.

According to Smith, Taeotui told his friends that co-defendant Gaono targeted Bessant in the sighting scope of a .22-caliber rifle, and said, "I got him."

At that point, Smith said he was told, Gaono opened fire, followed quickly by Taeotui and Compre.

After the shooting, Taeotui handed his revolver to Gaono and they all took off running, Smith said Taeotui's friends told him.

The bullet that killed the 25-year-old Bessant hit him just below his left armpit and penetrated his heart and liver, an investigator testified Monday.

His death came in a neighborhood with a history of gang violence.

Police say they have located two of the three guns that prosecutors say were used in the attack on Bessant, who was assisting another police officer with a traffic stop.

Police have not turned up a third gun they say also was fired in the attack.

Smith testified that investigators discovered 146 bullets -- all of them .22-caliber -- stuffed into a sock in Taeotui's home.

Police also found a half-full box of bullets tucked into a hole in a wall behind a clothes dryer in the garage of Compre's home, investigators testified.

The shooters were standing in front of Compre's home when they opened fire, prosecutors have said.

Mike Porretta, an investigator with the District Attorney's office, testified that an associate of Taeotui told authorities he had given Gaono the rifle used to kill Bessant.

The investigator also said that a day or so after the shooting, the associate let Taeotui stay at his house overnight, gave him clothes and cash and helped him get to the Watts area of Los Angeles so Taeotui could avoid police investigating Bessant's slaying.

At the end of the preliminary hearing, which is scheduled to will continue until at least Thursday, Superior Court Judge Runston G. Maino will decide if there is enough evidence to hold the teens for trial.


www.nctimes.com

OCEANSIDE: Teenager convicted of murder in cop-killing

VISTA ---- The teenage gang member accused in the fatal ambush shooting of Oceanside police Officer Dan Bessant sat motionless Monday afternoon as he listened to the verdict: guilty of first-degree murder.

Just feet away from Penifoti "P.J." Taeotui in the Vista courtroom, the slain officer's father blinked quickly and his breathing deepened slightly, but he also otherwise was motionless.

"My prayer for this ordeal ... was that the truth would prevail," Steve Bessant said moments later, after the jury left the courtroom and bailiffs hauled Taeotui back to jail.

A North County jury found Taeotui guilty of all charges in the shooting of Dan Bessant, who was assisting a fellow officer during an unrelated traffic stop in a gang-plagued neighborhood on the evening of Dec. 20, 2006.

Taeotui was 16 at the time of the fatal attack.

The Oceanside teen, one of two ordered to stand trial for the slaying, kept his head up and his face forward as the court clerk announced the verdict that may result in life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is set to be sentenced Jan. 12. His attorney was not available for comment Monday.

Taeotui's supporters cried in the crowded courtroom as the verdicts were read. One woman bolted sobbing from the courtroom as the verdicts were rendered. After the hearing, the same woman was in an elevator crying, "He's just a kid, he's just a kid," as the doors closed.

The nine women and three men who decided the case declined to comment Monday. Six of the jurors chose to leave through a rear exit of the courtroom, and were not available to the media or general public.

Outside the courtroom after the verdicts were read, Steve Bessant said he was grateful for the service of the jury.

Bessant said Taeotui's imprisonment may spare other families the heartache the Bessants have experienced.

Still, he has compassion for Taeotui's family, he said.

"They're losing a son also, who probably won't live another free day in his life," Bessant said. "But his family can visit him. I wish I could visit Danny."

During the trial, prosecutors said Taeotui's entrenchment in a local gang played the largest role in his decision to lift his revolver and squeeze the trigger when his fellow gang member began to fire.

Taeotui fired on Bessant to elevate the status of his gang and his role in it, prosecutors said.

Gang member Meki Gaono has confessed to firing the fatal bullet ---- it pierced Bessant's heart ---- while targeting the officer through a scope on a .22-caliber rifle.

Prosecutors said Taeotui was with Gaono and joined in, firing a .22 revolver. A third teen, Jose Compre, also is alleged to have fired a 9 mm handgun when the shooting started.

Gaono's trial is slated to begin in 2009. The case against Compre was decidedly weaker and a judge dismissed the charges earlier this year for lack of evidence. Authorities say Compre, now 18, remains a suspect and is still under investigation.

Because the alleged gunmen were juveniles at the time of the shooting ---- Gaono was less than two months shy of his 18th birthday, Compre was 16 years old ---- the law prevented prosecutors from seeking the death penalty.

However, the teens were charged as adults. The maximum sentence they could face is life in prison without parole.

No witnesses testified to seeing Taeotui pull the trigger on the .22-caliber revolver that prosecutors say he used.

But people in the neighborhood that evening testified they saw a person who matched Taeotui's description at the mailbox on which Gaono allegedly steadied himself to get a good shot.

The most damning evidence may have been Taeotui's own words to friends after the shooting, prosecutors said.

One former gang member testified about two weeks ago that Taeotui gave him details a day after the slaying while Taeotui was lying low.

The witness testified that Taeotui told him Gaono had the officer in his rifle sights when Gaono said something to the effect of "I can get a shot from here," to which Taeotui allegedly responded "Are you sure?"

And once Gaono fired, Taeotui lifted his revolver and joined in the shooting, according to the witness who said Taeotui confessed to him.

Gaono was once a student at an Oceanside alternative school at which Steve Bessant was the principal.

Bessant is the second Oceanside policeman shot to death since 2003. Adrian George Camacho, the man convicted of killing the other officer, Tony Zeppetella, now sits on California's death row. Camacho was 28 when he killed Zeppetella on June 13, 2003, in a surprise gun battle that also began as a traffic stop.

Contact staff writer Colleen Mensching at (760) 739-6675 or cmensching@nctimes.com.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/11 ... 00bdb2.txt

Jurors Reach Verdict in Officer Killing Trial

[img]http://media.nbcsandiego.com/images/600*450/Penifoti+Taeotui+Bessant.jpg[/img]

Penifoti Taeotui listens as jurors return a guilty verdict in his murder trial on November 10, 2008.


The jury has reached a verdict in the trial of Penifoti Taeotui, one of two men accused of shooting and killing Oceanside police officer Dan Bessant in 2006.

Watch VideoSteve Bessant 'They Can Visit Their Son'


Penifoti Taeotui, also known as "P.J.", was convicted of murder in the first degree. He was 16 at the time of the shooting and a documented member of a gang that claims turf in the area where the killing happened, not far from Camp Pendleton's back gate.

When the verdict was read, Taeotui's family left the courtroom. Some members began crying hysterically.

Witnesses have testified that Taeotui and his alleged accomplice, Mekhi Gaono, 19, were drunk on the night of Dec. 20, and fired two separate weapons at the officer. Gaono is accused of firing the shot that killed Bessant.

The North County Times reported Taeotui's attorney argued his client was not present at the time. Bessant was shot through the heart after stopping to see if a fellow officer needed assistance during a routine and unrelated traffic stop.

Unlike the prosecution, which took nearly a month to present its case and called dozens of witnesses, the defense called just a handful of witnesses.

While Taeotui did not show any emotion during witness testimony, it was a very different story for Bessant's father. "It's an emotional endurance contest," Steve Bessant said. "He was a good husband and in just a couple of months showed himself to be a super father."

Taeotui faces life in prison without the possibility of parole. Because he was a juvenile at the time of the crime, he is not eligible for the death penalty.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/J ... Trial.html

OCEANSIDE: Gang member gets life in cop killing

By City News Service | Monday, January 12, 2009 12:09 PM PST

VISTA ---- An 18-year-old gang member was sentenced Monday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for his role in the 2006 shooting death of an Oceanside police officer.

Penifoti Taeotui was found guilty of first-degree murder on Nov. 10 in the death of Officer Dan Bessant, who was gunned down in the same neighborhood where he was working to get rid of gang violence.

Taeotui also was convicted of two counts of assault with a deadly weapon for shooting at another officer who was working a traffic stop with Bessant, along with a civilian who was on a ride-a-long with the lawmen.

Taeotui's attorney, Wil Rumble, unsuccessfully urged Judge Runston Maino to sentence Taeotui to life in prison with parole because the defendant was 16 at the time of the killing.

Rumble told the judge that his client had a troubled upbringing and wasn't the person who fired the fatal shot.

Calling the case "sad," Maino said Taeotui should not be given a chance at parole.

Outside court, Deputy District Attorney Tom Manning told reporters the judge did the right thing.

"A message needs to be sent to gang members," the prosecutor said. "You aim a gun and fire at police officers and you kill a police officer, you're going to get the maximum sentence, and the full strength of the law is going to come down on you."

Bessant was 25 and a new father when he was gunned down Dec. 20, 2006.



Penifoti Taeotui is seen in court here in this November 2008 file photo when he was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Officer Dan Bessant. He was sentenced to life in prison Monday. (File photo by Jamie Scott Lytle - Staff Photographer)

NC TIMES

OCEANSIDE: Teen's letter to slain cop: 'I'm really sorry'

Confession crux of evidence in murder trial

By TERI FIGUEROA - Staff Writer
Sunday, April 5, 2009 7:07 PM PDT

On Dec. 20, 2006, Meki Gaono woke up early and headed to the alternative high school he attended in Oceanside. He came home, hung out with fellow gang members, drank some beers.

Even for a troubled 17-year-old kid, it probably never crossed his mind he would kill a cop that day.

And yet, by his own admission, he did just that.

"I was under the influence that night, and if I could take it back, I would," Gaono said in an apology letter he wrote to Oceanside police Officer Dan Bessant near the end of an all-night interrogation.

"Please find it in your heart to forgive me."

At that point, he did not know the 25-year-old Bessant was dead.

Gaono, now 20, is on trial for murder in the slaying of Bessant, who was caught unaware by a sniper's bullet during a routine traffic stop in a northeast Oceanside neighborhood. The area had been plagued by violence, most of it associated with the gang of which Gaono is a documented member.



Prosecutors say Gaono and two buddies, also documented gang members, were drinking beer and playing with guns when they spotted police activity down the street and decided to take aim.

And, they say, Gaono said as much to police. Gaono's attorney says the confession is false. It's up to the jury to decide.

Testimony is set to resume Monday in a trial that has thus far run four weeks. Gaono faces life in prison without parole if he is convicted.

'I had no reason'

According to court documents, evidence and testimony, Gaono came home from school that day and spent part of his afternoon with friends in front of an Arthur Avenue home. One of them had bought the equivalent of a case of beer at about 4:30 p.m. They drank it all and played with guns; DNA evidence ties Gaono to some of the empty cans and the murder weapon.

At 6:32 p.m., a rifle bullet hit Bessant. A witness told police he had seen Gaono running from the scene. Around 8:30 p.m., heavily armed police ordered Gaono and his family out of their home, also on Arthur Avenue.

Gaono was dressed only in shorts. He sat, barefoot and handcuffed, in the cold winter air and watched, according to testimony, as police officers prepared to search his family's home. Eventually, police allowed a family member to give the teenager a blanket and an officer let him sit in the back of her heated car.

By midnight, the teenager ---- still dressed only in shorts and wearing a blanket ---- sat barefoot in a tiny interrogation room at the Oceanside Police Department, his actions and comments recorded by a hidden camera.

Gaono would remain in that room for hours.

At one point, he wanted to go home, worried because he had to be at school in the morning. His requests to leave or to talk to family were refused.

He told police he was a senior with the goal of returning to El Camino High School before graduation. He said that he had once been a member of the school's ROTC military program, and that he had gotten in trouble for marijuana and fighting.

He gave police four, maybe five versions of the events of the day, from playing basketball with strangers to drinking alone in a nearby park.

Eventually, he said he was the triggerman. He described "shaking" as he looked at Bessant through the rifle's sighting scope; he spoke of his buddy asking him whether he had a clear shot. Gaono talked of opening fire while his friend fired handguns at the officer.

Eventually, Oceanside police Detective Micheal Brown asked the teenager what he would say to Bessant if he had the chance.

"Tell him I was really, really, really sorry," the teenager replied. "I had no reason to do what I did."

"Want to write an apology note to him?" Brown soon asked. "I know it would probably make a difference to him."

At that point, Brown knew what Gaono did not: Bessant was dead.

Gaono penned a short note, less than half a page, signed it, pushed it away, wrapped the blanket tighter around his body and rested his head in his arms on the table.

Three days after the shooting, while in juvenile hall in Kearny Mesa, Gaono gave another statement to police, again confessing ---- but doing so only after insisting, the night before, that police first let him see his mother or an attorney. They brought in his stepmother.

On the tape, the woman says to Gaono, "Why didn't you talk to them last night? Have them bring me all the way down here?"

'Damning evidence'

Defense attorney William Stone told the jury his client was not a triggerman. Instead, Gaono had hidden the guns for friends and took the rap when he realized police would find them.

He confessed before he learned Bessant had died. And, Stone said, once the unsophisticated Gaono was that far into the lie, there was no turning back.

In court last week, the slain officer's father, Steve Bessant, saw the apology letter ---- "the most damning piece of evidence," he said ---- and watched the teen's confession for the first time.

A school administrator who has been a principal and vice principal in area high schools, Steve Bessant said he recognized the vibe in Gaono's questioning. He himself has many times engaged a teenager in a verbal tug of war to get the kid to tell him the truth.

In a cruel twist, Gaono had been one of Steve Bessant's students, and also had been one of those kids who sat across from Bessant's desk in the school office.

After watching Gaono's confession tape, Steve Bessant said he came away with one impression: "Oh, he killed Danny."

Gaono's statements to police fail to give insight into perhaps the most frustrating and intriguing question: Why?

At one point during the taped confession, one of the detectives asked Gaono what he was thinking when he pulled the trigger.

"I wasn't," the teenager replied.

Contact staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 740-5442 or tfigueroa@nctimes.com.

NORTH COUNTY TIMES