Inmate gets 15 years in plea deal for 2020 gunshot slaying
A 28-year-old Solano County Jail inmate charged with the August 2020 gunshot slaying of a woman at a Cordelia traffic stop will receive, as part of a plea deal, 15 years in state prison when sentenced in the coming weeks in the Justice Center in Fairfield, The Reporter has learned.
Randall James Garner, scheduled for a June 16 jury trial on a murder charge, appeared in Department 23 on June 21 for additional proceedings when, waiving his rights, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter, a killing upon a sudden quarrel or in the heat of passion, for fatally shooting an unidentified 38-yearold woman. Garner also admitted to the enhancement of using a firearm to commit the crime, official court records show.
By entering a no-contest plea to the revised charge, Garner did not admit guilt but essentially stated he would offer no defense. Superior Court Judge John B. Ellis immediately found him guilty and ordered him to return for sentencing at 8:30 a.m. July 20.
Garner is represented by criminal defense attorney Gregory S. Clark of Vacaville. Chief Deputy District Attorney Paul Sequeira led the prosecution.
In the criminal complaint filed in 2020, the Solano County District Attorney's Office cited two other counts besides murder 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, or taking someone else's vehicle without their consent.
Details of the investigation and the circumstances that led to Garner's arrest in September 2020 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, 2020, dismissed the murder charge against the initial suspect, Louis Ray Marsh, then 58, of Fairfield.
The deceased woman has not been identified by the Solano County Coroner, which continues to say the victim's name remains “protected.”
Fairfield police investigators said events leading to the killing began early Aug. 14 when the victim, 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, and the suspect shot twice at him, police said. He subsequently exited Central Way, then called the police. His female passenger was pronounced dead.