A man accused of killing two Palm Springs police officers had "21 instances of intent to kill" when he fired that many shots at police outside his family's home, a prosecutor said today, but a defense attorney argued the shots were fired irrationally in drug-induced psychosis.
"Your charge is to decide: Are these are rational choices or are they irrational choices?'' defense attorney John Dolan said during his closing argument in the trial of John Hernandez Felix, 28.
Felix is accused of firing an AR-15 rifle at veteran Officer Jose Gilbert Vega, 63, and rookie Officer Lesley Zerebny, 27, from inside the Felix family home in the 2700 block of Cypress Avenue on Oct. 8, 2016, killing both.
While conceding that Felix's actions were "horrible," Dolan argued his client's below-average intelligence, auditory processing disorder and poor academic achievement should all be considered as factors in what he described as an irrational act fueled in part by methamphetamine psychosis.
"It affects your brain, it eats your brain," Dolan said of the drug for which Felix tested positive 15 hours after the shooting.
Side effects of the quantities of meth believed to be in Felix's blood stream at the time of the shooting include inhibited planning, organization, emotional control and judgment, defense witness Dr. Marjorie Graham-Howard testified during the trial, Dolan reminded jurors.
The witness also testified the drug "can impact one's reality in understanding what is real and what is not."
Even before the shooting, Dolan said, all three family members in the Felix home said the suspect was not "recognizable" that day.
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"This is the difference between being rational and being irrational," Dolan said. "Between premeditation, deliberation and malice of forethought, and unplanned irrational, disorganized. That's what this case is about in a nutshell."
Deputy District Attorney Manny Bustamante argued the defense -- in part through the testimony of Felix's relatives -- was "minimizing" the defendant's actions.
"The defendant was a ticking time bomb leading up to that day," the prosecutor said.
Bustamante reviewed for jurors the 37 times law enforcement had been called to the Cypress Avenue home as a result of Felix's erratic behavior, as well as the felony assault conviction already on his record.
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Bustamante also highlighted the moments leading up to the shooting.
"He didn't shoot the mom. He didn't shoot the house," Bustamante said, recounting the minutes before Margarita Felix -- the defendant's mother -- called law enforcement to the house for a domestic disturbance stemming from her hostile son. "He knew his limits."
After the mother called the police, there was a 45-minute period in which Felix "barricaded himself inside that house. He has choices to make," Bustamante said.
Instead of de-escalation, the defendant began an intentional ``ambush'' on police, the prosecutor said.
"We know he had at least 21 instances of intent to kill," Bustamante said as he clicked the trigger of the AR-15 Felix allegedly used during the shooting. "His goal was to take out and kill as many as he could, and that ticking time bomb went off."
Vega and Zerebny were the first Palm Springs police officers killed in the line of duty since Jan. 1, 1962, when Officer Lyle Wayne Larrabee died during a vehicle pursuit. The only other death in the department was that of Officer Gale Gene Eldridge, who was fatally shot on Jan. 18, 1961, while investigating an armed robbery.
Vega had been with the department 35 years -- five years past his retirement eligibility -- and had planned to retire in 2018. He had eight children, 11 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Zerebny had been with the department for 18 months and had just returned to duty following maternity leave, having given birth to a daughter, Cora, four months earlier.
Felix is facing a possible death sentence if convicted. He is charged with two counts of murder and six counts of attempted murder, with special circumstance allegations of killing police officers and committing multiple murders.
