Jurors in a high-stakes trial about the killing of a San Diego police officer will listen to closing statements for a second day.
Defendant Alex Charfaurous faces murder and attempted murder charges for the October 2010 police raid that resulted in the death of San Diego police Officer Chris Wilson.
Wilson was shot and killed while searching a Bay Terraces apartment for a parolee.
Charfauros did not fire the shot that killed Wilson however prosecutors claim Charfauros lied to police after he was pulled from the apartment.
They say Charfauros did not tell officers who was in the apartment and the potential danger awaiting law enforcement.
That lie, they allege, makes him responsible for Wilson’s death.
"He wouldn’t lift a finger, he wouldn’t speak a word to save anyone,” prosecutor Michael Runyon told jurors Monday.
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Runyon said under what’s called the natural probable consequences argument, there is no intent to kill necessary to find Charfauros guilty.
"He deliberately blew off those officers. He deliberately set them up. He deliberately sent them up to that apartment, and look at what happened because of it."
The defense says Charfauros did not know about the dangers inside that apartment, and did not lie to police.
The defense also claims probation officers and U.S. Marshals mishandled a dangerous situation, and are making Charfauros their scapegoat.
The prosecution will continue closing statements Tuesday before defense attorneys will present their closing to the jury.
Officer Wilson, 50, died from a gunshot wound to the head. An investigation revealed the fatal shot was fired by one of two other suspects who had barricaded themselves in a bedroom of the apartment on South Meadowbrook Drive.
San Diego Police were providing backup for probation officers on Oct. 27. 2010 as they searched for Holim Lee, a dangerous parole violator.
“They know you’re coming in there. They have the tactical advantage,” he said. “We always want to have the tactical advantage. In that instance they do. So we wouldn’t make it in. We’d call out. We’d contain and call out.”
Officers have testified in the trial that if SDPD knew suspects Holim Lee and his girlfriend Lucky Xayasene were heavily armed inside the unit they would have called in SWAT.
Lee and Xayasene killed themselves before capture.
Charfaurous' father told NBC 7 he believes his son, who has a history of drug abuse, was “crashed out” on meth when officers pulled him from the apartment.
