DA decides to retry Fairfield man for attempted voluntary manslaughter
The Solano County District Attorney apparently has decided to retry a 31-year-old Fairfield man whom a jury last week acquitted of attempted murder and then deadlocked on the lesser underlying crime of attempted voluntary manslaughter and other crimes.
According to court records, Sean Christopher Duvauchelle will return to Department 4 at 8:30 a.m. Dec. 30 for a readiness conference and trial setting in Judge E. Bradley Nelson’s courtroom in the Justice Center in Fairfield.
Monica Martinez, a spokeswoman for Solano County District Attorney Krishna Abrams, could not be reached for additional information at press time Monday.
After four days of deliberations that ended Dec. 17, the jury acquitted Duvauchelle of trying to kill his ex-girlfriend last year but deadlocked on the lesser charge and also acquitted the defendant of two other felonies, mayhem and making a criminal threat.
Duvauchelle’s defense attorney, Amyra Cobb-Hampton of the Alternate Public Defender, and Sharon Henry, a Solano County Chief Deputy District Attorney, confirmed the trial outcome, that Nelson declared a mistrial on the lesser included charge.
With the jury’s decisions, Duvauchelle, a previously convicted felon, avoided a state prison sentence of life with the possibility of parole, but he may face a prison stint of several years if convicted of the lesser charge at retrial.
During a brief interview after the trial, Cobb-Hampton said, “Clearly, the jury didn’t like the prosecutor’s case.”
Deputy District Attorney William Moser led the prosecution during the twoweek trial, including jury selection and deliberations.
Duvauchelle was charged with trying to kill Elizabeth Bitanga with a kitchen knife in the home they once shared in Fairfield.
She and Duvauchelle, who has a history of domestic violence, had been in a relationship for nine years when, as Moser said in his opening statement as the trial got underway on Dec. 5, the defendant told the victim, “You’re not going to leave me” as he stabbed her in the kitchen of a Meadowlark Drive home on April 25, 2018.
A good Samaritan intervened when Bitanga fled the home, and Duvauchelle reportedly left in his vehicle.
In her opening statement, Cobb-Hampton characterized the Duvauchelle-Bitanga relationship as “abnormal,” that they fought and argued. She acknowledged Duvauchelle’s prior convictions for domestic violence, noting that he pleaded guilty and “was remorseful for past behavior.”
As to the April 25 alleged stabbing, Cobb-Hampton noted that “no knife was ever fingerprinted.”
By April of last year, Bitanga, questioned on the witness stand, told Moser, she realized that she no longer wanted to remain in a romantic relationship with Duvauchelle because he was abusive and possessive.
On the day of the alleged stabbing, Bitanga testified that he grabbed her by the hair in the kitchen and accused her of “cheating.”
She recalled that Duvauchelle said, “If you keep f—— around with me, I’m going to end up killing you.”
Bitanga said she started screaming at that moment because she feared he would kill her.
Duvauchelle reportedly choked her and Bitanga twice tried to jump out of a window before he stabbed her, she said, telling her, “Why are you making me do this? I love you!” and “Do you want me to kill both of us?”
She eventually ran out of the Meadowlark Drive home and across the street, she said, but Duvauchelle “brought me back to his car.”
“I thought he was going to stab me again,” she recalled. “I thought he was trying to finish me off.”
Bitanga testified about several domestic violence episodes at the hands of Duvauchelle, as far back as 2015, with Moser showing videos and photos, one of which indicated that Duvauchelle had bitten her mouth, causing her lip to bleed, and bloodied her nose after punching her.