Testimony: Boot prints in blood lead to man accused of killing guitar maker

<p>Blood smeared across the floor of a slain guitar maker's Rohnert Park workshop had footprints in it that appear to match the soles of boots seized from the man accused of his murder.</p><p>The new details emerged Monday in a preliminary hearing for Joshua Begley, 28, who is believed to have stabbed to death Taku Sakashita, 43, on Feb. 11 at his Martin Avenue business.</p><p>Detectives testified they found a 10- to 25-foot-long smear of blood in the shop that stretched from a sawdust recovery machine to the roll-up garage door. From there, spatters of blood continued in a trail across the parking lot, puddling near the door to Sakashita's black Nissan sports car. His body was found in bushes a few feet away.</p><p>Within the smear of blood that measured about a foot wide were a number of footprints with the same shape and pattern of a pair of Wolverine boots seized from Begley's girlfriend's apartment three days later, Officer David Rodriguez testified.</p><p>The brown leather boots had what appeared to be dried blood on the side of them, Rodriguez said.</p><p>“They look similar,” Rodriguez testified. “The sole of the boot has the same shape.”</p><p>Detectives also testified about other articles found with Sakashita that could link Begley to the killing. There was a green work jacket over his body with a black, folding knife in one pocket and a single black glove for the right hand in the other pocket. The knife had blood on it.</p><p>Begley's ex-girlfriend, Stephanie Gareis, 22 of Petaluma, said Begley wore a similar jacket. She said the knife was just like one he kept in his SUV and he used similar gloves with yellow markings to do greasy car repair jobs.</p><p>Detectives testified they found the mate to the glove in a search of Begley's green Jeep Cherokee. It was a left-handed glove and had a yellow “CLC” logo on it. They also said they found splatters of dried blood in the SUV and three other knives.</p><p>Testimony also revealed what could be a more precise timeline for the slaying. Sakashita was on a phone call with a customer in Japan starting at 7:54 p.m. when the line suddenly went dead after about 29 minutes.</p><p>His customer, Tokyo music store owner Nobuyuki Hayashi, told police he heard a grunt before the call was disconnected, Det. John Gilson. </p><p>The timing appears to correspond to comments from another witness who said she saw Begley parked in his Jeep outside her nearby apartment just before 8 p.m.</p><p>Traci Woodard testified Begley was blocking the parking space to her apartment. She signaled for him to move and he pulled up alongside her and stared at her. She was so scared she stayed in her car and called her boyfriend, she testified.</p><p>“It was so disturbing,” Woodard said. “It was such an intense look. I just felt this person was going to do something very bad.”</p><p>Other detective testified an SUV fitting the description of Begley's was captured on surveillance video tape and had been reviewed.</p><p>Another Rohnert Park detective, Phillip Lamaison, testified about Sakashita's wounds. He said the autopsy revealed he had 11 stab wounds, including three to the chest, four in the neck, one in the chin, two in the back of the head and one in the hand.</p><p>One of the chest wounds punctured his heart, one struck his liver and another hit his lung. Blood vessels in Sakashita's neck were severed.</p><p>He said the man appeared to have died from blood loss or cardiac arrest as a result of the stab wound.</p><p>The hearing continues Tuesday at 9:30 a.m.</p>