Attorneys began closing arguments Monday in the trial of Oak View resident Archie Schaffer Jr., president of the Santa Barbara Hells Angels, after prosecutors told the court they didn't have enough evidence to convict him of making criminal threats in an alleged road-rage incident in Casitas Springs.
California - Outside the presence of the jury, prosecutor Derek Malan told Ventura County Superior Court Judge Patricia Murphy that the district attorney was instead charging Schaffer with the lesser felony of attempting to make criminal threats.
Schaffer, 35, also is accused of street terrorism, reckless driving, committing a crime for the benefit of the Hells Angels and using a firearm in the commission of a crime.
His attorney, Anthony Zinnanti, argued that changing the charge at this point in the trial would prejudice Schaffer's case. Zinnanti noted the criminal charge was amended after the defense presented its evidence and rested its case.
Murphy disagreed and allowed Malan to charge Schaffer with attempted criminal threats stemming from the Jan. 17 incident in which Schaffer and five motorcyclists exchanged words, leading to accusations by two of the motorcyclists that Schaffer threatened and pointed a gun at them.
During closing arguments, Zinnanti immediately pointed out the lesser charge and described it as a sign that the case against his client was weak.
Earlier, during his arguments to jurors, Malan said the charge of attempted criminal threats was appropriate because one of the motorcyclists, Duncan Mardling, testified that he was not in "sustained fear" when Schaffer allegedly pointed the gun at him. Sustained fear is a requirement in state law as evidence of a criminal threat.
Malan told jurors that prosecution witnesses gave "strikingly similar" accounts of what happened as the motorcyclists and Schaffer, who was driving a pickup truck, were heading north on Highway 33. Malan summarized the accounts of prosecution witnesses, including Mardling, who said that after Schaffer showed him the gun, Mardling braked to put distance between him and Schaffer. Malan noted that both Mardling and another motorcyclist, David Navarrete, said Schaffer invoked the name of the Hells Angels.
But Zinnanti told jurors Schaffer ended up being called a "gun-toting terrorist" by an overzealous prosecutor handed an "extremely weak" case. He said the prosecution called it a Hells Angels crime to prop up the case.
Zinnanti noted a witness, motorcyclist Daniel Davis, testified that Schaffer didn't threaten or point a gun at him during his 10-second encounter with Schaffer. Zinnanti cited inconsistencies in witnesses' statements and noted that no gun was found despite the search of 13 locations and the search and impounding of Schaffer's truck.
Zinnanti said Schaffer is guilty only of tailgating, speeding and being a hot-head. "That's about it," Zinnanti told jurors, who received the case later Monday.
Source: Ventura County Star
This article contributed by editor on Wednesday, September 09, 2009 (02:19:52)
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