Pubdate: Thu,  8 Dec 2005
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2005 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Yomi S. Wronge

CASE OF KILLING IN LINE OF DUTY SENT TO JURY

In the moments after a wild, high-speed chase, narcotics agent Mike 
Walker believed he saw a fugitive parolee flash a weapon and had no 
choice but to shoot, his defense attorney said.

The only problem with that, argued a prosecutor, is that the victim 
was the wrong man, was unarmed and was shot in the back -- something 
he called reminiscent of "the Old West."

The historic case against Walker, California's first drug enforcement 
agent charged with killing in the line of duty, ended on Wednesday as 
dramatically as it began. Spending a total of eight hours with 
closing arguments, the two sides urged jurors to rely on the law, the 
evidence and their internal sense of justice to return a just verdict.

And with that, deliberations in the high-stakes trial began.

Walker, an agent with the elite Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, is 
charged with voluntary manslaughter for firing on Rodolfo "Rudy" 
Cardenas, a father of five and small-time drug dealer whom Walker 
pursued and then shot in what amounts to a tragic case of mistaken identity.

Walker appeared stoic as jurors filed out of Judge Rene Navarro's San 
Jose courtroom. There was a group of supporters from the Department 
of Justice seated behind him in the Hall of Justice courtroom. On the 
opposite side of the aisle, the Cardenas family and various outraged 
citizens looked on anxiously.

For nearly two months, jurors have heard opposing versions of what 
led up to the Feb. 17, 2004, shooting, which started as a simple 
surveillance operation.

On that day, Walker and other agents were charged to keep watch on 
the residence of David Gonzales, a parolee who was in violation for 
not reporting his change of address.

When Cardenas drove past the location, Walker mistook him for 
Gonzales and followed. Cardenas led the agent on a wild pursuit 
through downtown streets that two San Jose police officials testified 
they deemed too dangerous to join.

Walker caught up with Cardenas on North Fourth Street, where Cardenas 
ditched his minivan and ran down an alleyway adjacent to the Shires 
Memorial Center retirement home.

The story blurs from that point.

According to the agent, Cardenas tried to lure him in by running 
slowly down the alley with his hands held suspiciously near his 
waistband. After scaling a chain link fence, Cardenas turned and 
revealed what Walker insists was a gun. The agent fired, and 
testified in his own defense that he believed his choice was kill or be killed.

But the prosecutor disputes virtually everything Walker said.

Deputy District Attorney Lane Liroff said Cardenas did not have a gun 
and that a surveillance video of the North Fourth Street site 
indicates there wasn't enough time for events to have played out the 
way Walker described.

Finally, three witnesses testified they did not see anything in 
Cardenas' hands.

Liroff repeatedly called Walker a "cowboy" and told the jury of six 
men and six women that the agent exercised "hair-trigger judgment" 
that resulted in the death of an innocent man.

The high-profile case has drawn intense public scrutiny, from enraged 
members of Cardenas' family and their supporters and also from 
members of the law enforcement community, which believes Walker is 
being unjustly prosecuted.

In his four-hour closing argument, defense attorney Craig Brown 
reminded jurors of a slew of defense experts who testified that 
Walker acted properly under the circumstances. And he recalled the 
testimony of two medical experts who said the trajectory of the 
bullet indicates Cardenas could have been turning toward the agent 
when he was shot in the back.

"You have to put that badge on yourself," Brown said, addressing the 
jurors for the final time Wednesday. "And with that state of mind, 
standing in the shoes of Mike Walker, ask yourself, 'Would I have 
done the same thing?' "

Throughout the trial, Walker insisted he saw a gun in Cardenas' 
hands, even though no firearm was found. That the agent made such a 
fatal mistake -- and that Cardenas was shot from behind while running 
away -- was hammered into jurors' minds by prosecutor Liroff.

"The truth is when you shoot someone in the back it's the same as in 
the Old West," Liroff said during his rebuttal argument. "It's not 
self-defense."

Walker faces up to 11 years in prison if convicted.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman