Testimony in guitar maker's death focuses on a pair of boots

<p>Sonoma County prosecutors Thursday called to the stand the former girlfriend of the man accused of killing a Rohnert Park guitar maker to question her about a pair of boots found by police at her apartment.</p><p>Earlier this year, Sheryl Bishop told police the boots belonged to Joshua Begley, who is on trial for the Feb. 11 stabbing of guitar maker Taku Sakashita, 43. Prosecutors contend footprints in a long blood smear on the floor of Sakashita's shop link the boots, and therefore Begley, to the crime.</p><p>But seated before a jury about six months later, Bishop was less sure about who owned the boots, found on her back porch three days after the slaying. Bishop said police never asked her whose boots they were and that she was in a “state of confusion or shock” after coming home to find more than 10 officers surrounding her house.</p><p>“I assume since they were on my back porch they were Joshua's,” said Bishop, who said under questioning that she had been in love with Begley.</p><p>“They are not mine and he was at my house. So I assume they were his,” she said.</p><p>The testimony came in the second week of trial for Begley, who is accused of killing Sakashita during a robbery of his Martin Avenue shop. Sakashita made acoustic and electric guitars for professional musicians that fetched up to $30,000 a piece.</p><p>Bishop testified she was alone with her daughter at her Civic Center Drive apartment when she got a phone call from Begley at 10:10 p.m. the night of the killing. Prosecutors believe Sakashita was killed earlier in the evening, just before 8:30 p.m.</p><p>Although Bishop and Begley had ended their relationship a few months before, Begley was sleeping on her couch, she said, and keeping some of his belongings in her garage. The rest of his stuff was in his green Jeep Cherokee, she said.</p><p>They talked briefly and Begley came over about two minutes later, she said.</p><p>Bishop said she didn't notice anything unusual about Begley's appearance or clothing. A blood-stained jacket prosecutors say belonged to Begley was found at the murder scene.</p><p>Begley was arrested and charged with murder three days later. That night, Bishop said she arrived home to face police questioning. But just what was said is in dispute. Prosecutor Tashawn Sanders said Bishop identified the boots as Begley's. On Thursday, Bishop said police never asked her whose they were.</p><p>“I said there were boots on the back porch,” she testified. “I don't know if I said they were Josh's boots or not.”</p><p>Detectives seized the boots and staked out the apartment. Begley was arrested there after a chase with police.</p><p>Begley's attorney, Charles Ogulnik, said in opening statements the evidence against his client was circumstantial. He suggested Begley was somewhere else at the time of the killing.</p><p>Begley's defense also seemed to rest on the notion that someone else may have had control of his possessions, such as the jacket or boots.</p>