Victim’s girlfriend testifies in police killing trial
While pointing his gun at a 47-year-old East Los Angeles man in his home, Michael Christopher Mejia, 30, of Los Angeles, began a countdown from 10 but didn’t wait until he got to one to pull the trigger.
So testified Victoria Pineda, the girlfriend of Roy Torres, who was killed Feb. 20, 2017, in the converted garage where both lived. Mejia, facing two counts of murder in the first degree, attempted murder and carjacking, would later that morning kill Whittier police Officer Keith Boyer, 53, according to prosecutors.
On Wednesday, Pineda testified in Norwalk Superior Court about the day’s first killing.
“He shot him during the countdown,” Pineda said during the third day of Mejia’s trial. “He got down to eight.”
Mejia, who appeared to be wearing the same gray and white striped shirt as the day before, also is accused of wounding Whittier Officer Patrick Hazell in a shootout that began around 8:30 a.m. The pair had responded to a traffic collision at Mar Vista Street and Colima Road.
The day for Pineda and her friend, Sandra Lopez, turned ugly when they returned from a night on the town about 5 a.m., she said.
They had borrowed Torres’ car, a 2012 Dodge Stratus, and when entering the garage, Pineda said she saw Mejia and Torres behind a red van, talking to each other. She described the scene as “awkward.”
“I saw that I had walked into something,” Pineda said. “The defendant was next to him, and they were talking. I didn’t hear what they were talking about.”
Mejia took his shirt off, and Pineda saw a gun in his waistband. Mejia told the women to leave, but Pineda said she didn’t want to.
“I didn’t want to leave because Roy was there,” she testified. “I wasn’t going to leave Roy by himself.”
Mejia shot Torres, Pineda said. Originally, it was reported the men are related, but Torres family members and a deputy district attorney said Wednesday that isn’t true. After pulling the trigger, Mejia asked Pineda for the keys to Torres’ car.
“I gave him the keys,” she said. “I had no choice.”
Pineda was mostly composed on the stand but started to cry when describing the killing. The judge ordered a break.
Nearly three hours later after fleeing in Torres’ car, Mejia was involved in a traffic collision in Whittier.
Ultimately, Mejia shot at officers called to the accident scene, killing Boyer, according to several witnesses who testified on Tuesday.
On cross-examination, Pineda admitted to being a methamphetamine addict and on parole.
That was why she initially didn’t identify Mejia to sheriff’s detectives, Pineda said. She later went to the sheriff’s East Los Angeles station to make a report.
Pineda denied being under the influence at the time of the first shooting and said her lack of sleep had no effect on her.
Apparently growing tired of his line of questions, especially those involving her past drug use, she later asked defense attorney Paul Cohen: “What does this have to do with this case?”
The court continued to make use of an overflow room, as only two seats are available for the public in the courtroom. In addition to Boyer and Torres family members, a number of Whittier police officers were in attendance.
However, Boyer’s father, who has taken one of the court’s public seats — the other is set aside for the media — was absent. It was the first day he has missed.
In February, then-new L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón announced the death penalty is off the table. Trial is expected to resume today.