Trial-setting paused once again for man charged with 2020 Cordelia murder

A Solano County Superior Court judge ordered a 27-year-old man, accused of the gunshot slaying of an unidentified 38-yearold woman at a traffic stop in Cordelia on August 14, 2020, to return early next year for more proceedings in the case.

Randall James Garner, who appeared Thursday in Department 15 for a readiness conference and trial setting, heard Judge Robert Bowers vacate the proceedings, then told the defendant to return at 8:30 a.m. Jan. 13 for the same matters in the Justice Center in Fairfield.

In the criminal complaint filed Sept. 17 last year, the Solano County District Attorney’s Office cited two other counts against Garner: shooting at an occupied vehicle and being a felon in possession of a firearm, in addition to citing three prior convictions for joyriding, that is, taking someone else’s vehicle without their consent.

Garner is represented by defense attorney Gregory S. Clark of Vacaville, and Chief Deputy District Attorney Paul Sequeira leads the prosecution.

Details of the investigation and the circumstances that led to Garner’s arrest in September last year have not become available by the lead agency in the case, the Fairfield Police Department.

But court records also indicate the DA on Aug. 18 dismissed the murder charge against a Fairfield man, Louis Ray Marsh, 58 at the time, who was the initial suspect.

Killed in the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 14, the deceased woman has not been identified by the Solano County Coroner, which has continued to cite as the reason, including a statement on Thursday, that the investigation is ongoing.

Fairfield police investigators said the events leading to the killing began when the victim, as a passenger in a vehicle, waited at a traffic light on Lopes Road near the on-ramp to Interstate 80. Investigators initially said the killing likely stemmed from a previous altercation.

The driver of the victim’s vehicle sped off onto the freeway, the suspect shooting twice at him, striking his vehicle, police said. He subsequently exited Central Way then called the police. His female passenger was pronounced dead.