Trial begins for man charged with Garden Grove shooting death, Santa Ana attempted murder
Trial began Tuesday for a man accused of gunning down one man in a Garden Grove parking lot and injuring a 16-year-old during a separate Santa Ana shooting.
Richard Adrian Trevino, 44, is accused of killing Frank Brady on July 18, 2016 during an argument in a parking lot outside of a Garden Grove smoke shop, a week after he is suspected of shooting a teen in a seemingly unrelated confrontation.
Trevino has denied being involved with either shooting.
Deputy District Attorney Nick Thomo, during opening statements in Orange County Superior Court, told jurors that as Trevino left the scene of the Santa Ana shooting he told a witness, “I’m sorry for disrespecting your neighborhood, but whoever disrespects me is going to get capped.”
A week later, the prosecutor told jurors, an argument between Trevino and Brady in a strip mall parking lot near Harbor Boulevard and Trask Avenue ended with Trevino pulling a gun from his waistband and “executing” Brady.
“When the defendant feels disrespected, he will not hesitate to take a life,” Thomo said.
Police linked the Santa Ana and Garden Grove shootings through bullet casings found at both scenes, Thomo said.
Bullets with Trevino’s DNA on them, found in the backseat of the car Trevino is believed to have left the scene of the Garden Grove shooting in, were also tied to both incidents, the prosecutor said.
Erica Stone, who brought Trevino to the Garden Grove parking lot and has admitted to serving as a getaway driver after the shooting, is expected to be a key witness in the trial, the prosecutor said.
Stone was initially charged with murder alongside Trevino, but has pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact.
Trevino’s attorney, Jeremy Goldman, told jurors that none of the witnesses, nor the victim, of the Santa Ana shooting were able to identify Trevino.
The defense attorney added that the only one to ID Trevino as the shooter in the Garden Grove killing was Stone, and that in return for her cooperation, prosecutors will drop the murder charge she was facing.
“You will decide what her motivation is, self-preservation or truth telling,” Goldman told jurors.
The Garden Grove shooting was captured on surveillance video but did not reveal the shooter’s identity.
Emotional family members of Brady quickly left the courtroom Tuesday in the midst of opening statements as the footage of the shooting was played for the jury.