August 25, 2005

Fontana murder trial set

By Kymberli W. Brady
Staff Writer

A Dec. 5 trial date has been set for Deshawn Camp-bell, charged with gunning down rookie San Jose Police Officer Jeffrey Fontana during a routine traffic stop on a quiet Almaden cul-de-sac nearly four years ago.

Thousands of officers came together to remember the life of fellow officer Jeffrey Fontana at his funeral on Oct. 31, 2001.

Campbell, then 22, was arraigned Thurs. Nov. 8, 2001 and charged with the Oct. 28 shooting after a city-wide manhunt led to his capture in East San Jose. He was later found guilty of prior offenses and is currently serving a 20-year sentence for an unrelated strong-armed robbery charges while awaiting the capital murder trial.

Tyree Washington, then 23, has been charged with accessory after the fact for helping Campbell elude capture following the shooting. He is scheduled to appear as well, with his new attorney Jim Leinenger.

Fontana’s mother Sandy got the call from Deputy District Attorney Lane Liroff last Thursday—the type of call she still can’t get used to, even though she’s received many over the past four years.

“I am astounded at all this.” she says. “Mind you, we’re thrilled that we’re going forward at this point, but we’re absolutely shocked that it has taken four years to bring justice to this case. After so long, who’s going to remember? Who’s going to have the recollection needed to convict Deshawn or bring justice to the case?”

According to Liroff, it is not at all unusual for a capital trial to take years before making it to trial. They are usually front-loaded with investigations, examinations, discovery, and motions.

Liroff says both camps were ready in 2003, but as they neared the October trial date, he discovered a situation that stopped the case dead in its tracks. Riddled with delays, continuances, and questionable ethics, Judge Marc Poche decided to remove Public Defender Charlie Gillan, whose work on a civil suit involving the Fontana and Campbell families created conflict of interest concerns.

Liroff says it all but created certain grounds for an appeal should Campbell be convicted—a risk he didn’t want to take, no matter how drawn out the process would be.

“I feel I’ve got a strong case and expect to convict Mr. Campbell. Making the conviction stick is still a top priority.”

In February 2004, Edward Sousa was selected from a pool of court-hired private attorneys to represent Campbell, as similar conflict-of-interest issues prohibited another public defender from taking the case. Sousa was granted a continuance in September to “wade through the thousands of documents and interview witnesses” in order to prepare his case.

“We knew it would never go on that date,” Liroff admits. “He only came on this case in February 2004. “It’s a capital case—there’s a lot of stuff that goes on in a trial like this and it’s not unusual for it to take years for that to occur. The courts tend to allow a substantial amount of time to prepare.”

Officer Jeffrey Fontana

Not yet comfortable with the case, Sousa asked for another continuance on May 11 of this year and again on May 26.

“It’s certainly not my desire to postpone the case,” Sousa says. “I didn’t come into this with a clean slate. I already had four other murder cases and one attempted murder case to resolve first.”

With four now behind him and one on the docket behind Campbell, Sousa says he was finally able to start working on the case two months ago. That gives him only four months to prepare for the trial, as well as a guilty phase and penalty phase should there be one.

“You want to be very careful in capital cases,” Sousa says. “Because there’s a death penalty at stake, you want to make sure everything that can be done should be done.”

While Sandy Fontana says she understands the reason for the delay, she is worried about its effect on the outcome of the case. “I’m afraid that if we don’t have this trial soon, no one is going to remember what happened and everyone will be gone. At least they did a very thorough preliminary investigation and I only hope those testimonies can be used.”

Even with a Dec. 5 court date, Liroff says the actual trial probably won’t begin until late January after motions and jury selection.

Liroff, the only remaining original counsel after four years is ready and confident that he’s had ample time to gather testimonies and collect the evidence he feels will make a conviction stick, including the person who claims to have destroyed the murder weapon at Campbell’s request, and a spring found in his home that Liroff says would fit in the magazine of the type of gun Campbell allegedly used.

Then there’s the four-page letter Campbell wrote to his family after the shooting while on the run. It was later confiscated by police who say it reads like an admission of guilt—a “smoking gun.”

This section of the letter originally appeared in the Feb. 6, 2002 issue of the Mercury News and describe Campbell’s fear of capture—or worse.

“I know dat I did some off da hook [things] . . . and there is no going back to fix it. Every one on da police force is looking foe me and I know dat if I do not trune myself in they will kick my ass or kill me when they see me. I do no dat I can run, but I cannot hide foe ever.”

Both Sousa and Liroff declined to comment on the legal strengths of the letter, but says it doesn’t prove anything.

“I’m never comfortable with a case until it’s over,” Liroff admits. “I feel that we have a strong case but I won’t make any predictions.”

As he prepared for a Wednesday meeting with Judge Kevin Murphy, who will preside over the trial, Liroff said he wouldn’t be surprised if the defense asked for another continuance.

“Now whether the judge will grant that or not, I don’t know,” he says.