A man who told police he wanted to die last year is one step
closer to spending the rest of his life in jail.
A man who told police he wanted to die last year is one step closer to spending the rest of his life in jail.
County Superior Court Judge Hector Ramon held Pete Joseph Valdez III accountable for the attempted murder of a Gilroy police officer and three other felony counts Thursday morning. Ramon set the arraignment for 8:35 a.m. Monday at the San Martin courthouse, paving the way for a jury trial by spring at the earliest.
Valdez, 29, stands accused of attempting to kill Officer John Ballard early the morning of Nov. 15. After his grueling arrest, Valdez told police he wanted to die and was hoping an officer would shoot him.
The same man looked up at his parents Thursday morning, shaking slightly in an orange jumpsuit with tears running down his cheeks. His shackles clanked with his grief, and his face was red and swollen from hours of wiping his nose and crying quietly as the man he allegedly tried to kill testified and then sat two chairs down.
Valdez’s father, former 16-year Gilroy councilman Pete Valdez Jr., and his wife were the only people in the stands as both sides spent three hours recounting the morning when Ballard noticed Valdez bicycling without a headlight. Drawings and expert testimonials painted a picture of Ballard trying to stop Valdez before the latter took off on his bike and then ditched it a few blocks later. A brief foot chase ensued and then Ballard tackled the suspect in a dark dirt lot near the intersection of Eighth and Church streets.
They struggled, and Valdez produced a .25-caliber semiautomatic handgun loaded with seven hollow-point bullets. With his face in the dirt and Ballard – a 12-year officer – on top of him, Valdez allegedly pointed the gun at Ballard’s head and pulled the trigger multiple times.
“It was obvious to me that (Valdez) was pointing the gun at me,” Ballard said on the stand Thursday as Valdez moaned and wept softly with his head down.
“Valdez’s arm was moving up and down, and as it was moving in the backlighting, I could see the outline of the weapon,” said Corporal Justin Matsuhara, who showed up at the last second to help Ballard.
The gun malfunctioned because two bullets clogged the chamber. Eventually Ballard and Matsuhara cuffed Valdez with the help of an electronic stun gun and several blows to the head, foiling what the prosecution argued was the defendant’s attempt at suicide-by-cop. Ballard and Matsuhara told the court they did not pull their own guns because their hands were focused on Valdez’s and saving Ballard’s life. Berndt Ingo Brauer, Valdez’s attorney, concentrated on the poor lighting at the scene during his examinations, but in his closing remarks, he seized on the officers’ non-lethal response and the physical details of his client’s experience.
“(Valdez) never tried to clear the gun to make it operational, and I don’t see how a person face down can aim to kill someone,” Brauer said. “The officers conducted themselves extremely professionally. They received injuries and Valdez did not. There is enough for assault, yes, illegal possession of a firearm, yes, but not attempted murder of a police officer.”
According to an interview with police later that morning, though, Valdez said he took the gun out with the intent of shooting the officer so someone would shoot him.
“I wanted to die,” Valdez told Officer Jose Barrera, according to a transcript.
In her closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Patricia Henley said the law defines attempted murder as a direct step toward killing someone, however ineffectual.
“If it weren’t for the malfunctioning gun, he would’ve killed Officer Ballard,” Henley said. “He pointed a gun at Ballard’s head.”
After the scuffle, Ballard said Valdez apologized to him, and for Judge Ramon, that meant a lot.
“In effect, it seems to the court that that’s an admission,” Ramon said before upholding all four felony counts against Valdez. If convicted, Valdez, who has been denied bail, would spend the rest of his life in prison because he has 10 prior convictions, including three felony convictions for a strong-arm robbery.
Before Ramon set the arraignment, Brauer made one last attempt to subpoena any tape or audio recording of Valdez’s interview or from squad cars. Barrera said the interview was not records because the department was still moving into the new station and setting things up, and the cars either did not have cameras or they were not working. Judge Ramon, who did not allow cameras in his courtroom for the case, rejected Brauer’s 11th-hour request to have police look again.
