Trial begins for suspect in I-5 bus shooting
Four years after six people were shot on a bus in transit on Interstate 5, Kern County Deputy District Attorney Stephanie Taconi said in her opening statement that this case is not about the defendant suspected of the shooting; this case is about the 40 people who were victimized in 2020.
“None of them (were) expecting that their lives would be forever changed by an angry man with a gun,” Taconi said.
The trial for Anthony Devonte Williams, 37, of Dallas, Texas, who is suspected of the Feb. 3, 2020 shooting on a Greyhound bus traveling from Los Angeles to Oakland began Tuesday in Kern County Superior Court with opening statements. Williams is charged with one count of first-degree murder and six counts of attempted murder.
Taconi said the bus was in transit the entire time of the shootings and there was nowhere for victims to run, hide or escape. Taconi said the woman who died was Elena Lurbis Vence. The five who were injured were husband and wife Robert and Hilda Dorantes, Franciso Alcantar, Christina Scott and Claudia Alvarez.
Taconi said all the victims were taken to Kern Medical for treatment and some of them suffered lasting injuries. Taconi said the sixth charge for attempted murder was for starting an argument with Raymundo Garcia because Williams intended to kill him.
According to the police report from the California Highway Patrol, Williams admitted to officers that he carried a gun on the bus, shot his gun until it was empty and argued with a passenger. However, he told officers he did not remember if the bullets hit anyone.
After the shooting, the bus driver pulled over and let Williams off the bus and the rest of the passengers were taken to a Denny’s in Lebec to be interviewed by officers, according to the police report. Taconi said law enforcement agents found Williams walking on the side of the highway and that Williams surrendered with his hands above his head before officers instructed him to.
According to the report, Williams told officers that he contemplated whether he should surrender peacefully or engage in a police shootout. However, Williams told officers he surrendered because he did not have a chance to say goodbye to his mother.
Williams also told a nurse when he was booked into jail that he was suicidal
and attempted suicide twice, according to the report.
Taconi said Williams called his grandmother afterward and told her, in part, “I shot people, grandma,” and “it was intended for one person and it ended up being more than one person, grandma.”
Deputy Public Defenders Nick Roth and Samantha Sark are representing Williams, and sat with him in court Tuesday. Williams wore the same purple shirt as the day before after he expected the trial to start Monday. Due to time conflicts with a few jurors, jury selection continued Monday and opening statements were pushed to Tuesday morning.
Roth said the defense is not arguing that Williams shot his gun on the bus, or contesting that the victims were struck, but they will argue that Williams was medically insane at the time of the shooting.
Roth told the jury there are two components to a crime: an act and a mental state. Roth said at the end of the case, he plans to ask the jury for an acquittal of all charges because the shootings were not premeditated.
“This was not some wellthought-out plan from a criminal mastermind,” Roth said.
Roth denied that Williams argued with anyone and everyone else on the bus kept to themselves, either sleeping or listening to music as the bus traveled through the Grapevine in the dead of night. Williams was talking to himself nonsensically and no one else did anything to provoke Williams, Roth said.
Williams’ trial is ongoing and is expected to continue for the next few weeks. He is being held without bail.