Testimony in Santa Rosa slaying case focuses on ballistic evidence

A ballistics expert testified Wednesday that the markings on bullet casings found at the scene of three different Santa Rosa shootings - and those on a bullet removed from the body of a Santa Rosa man killed July 6 - indicate the same 9 mm pistol was used to commit the crimes.

The gun was found at the Marble Street home of a Santa Rosa teen charged with pulling the trigger in each case, 19-year-old Ramon Perez.

The evidence was presented before Sonoma County Judge Patrick Broderick during the second day of a preliminary hearing for Perez and two other Santa Rosa men charged with the July 6 killing of Austin Sargent-Deselle, 20, outside an apartment complex on Corby Avenue. Broderick will decide whether there is enough evidence to go to trial.

Sonoma County sheriff’s detectives have said that Perez and Mizrain Nava Cano and Jesse Urbina, both 22, were out looking to “start something” that July night, motivated by their alleged gang affiliations.

Investigators have so far painted the picture of a somewhat random encounter, with the suspects out looking for trouble when they spotted Sargent-Deselle and several others standing in a darkened apartment building parking lot.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Detective Jeff Toney testified that one of the men with Sargent-Deselle told him that no words were exchanged when two men walked into the parking lot just before 1:45 a.m. as the shorter of the two men opened fire.

The witness couldn’t see the men clearly enough to identify them, and he speculated that another man who goes by the nickname “Termite” may have been the shooter, Toney said. Authorities have not arrested or identified that person.

Instead, detectives identified Perez, Nava Cano and Urbina from surveillance video taken from a nearby 7-Eleven just before the shooting. They were wearing dark clothing like the witness described. In the video, Nava Cano threw his hands up at the camera and displayed what a gang detective said was a hand gesture displaying a “V” and an “O” for Valley Oak Crips.

Prosecutors have said that Nava Cano and Perez walked up to ?Sargent-Deselle and his friends, with Perez pulling the trigger and Urbina acting as the getaway driver.

Sargent-Deselle was struck three times by gunfire, and the likely fatal shot struck him in the chest, injuring both lungs, said A. Jay Chapman, the forensic pathologist who conducted an autopsy.

Chapman testified Wednesday that the trajectory of the bullets through the body indicated Sargent-Deselle had begun turning away from the direction of the shooter and was leaning forward. The doctor stood up and demonstrated the position.

Prosecutor Diana Gomez suggested Sargent-Deselle was either fleeing the gunman or falling to the ground when he was hit.

Perez’s attorney Barry McBride questioned Chapman about whether any of the injuries may have occurred after the shooting and contributed to the man’s death. A deputy arrived on the scene while friends were loading the unresponsive wounded man into a BMW, prompting them to pull Sargent-Deselle back out of the vehicle and onto the ground.

“There is no way I can relate the handling as you have described to hastening his death,” Chapman said.

Later in the hearing, Urbina’s attorney, Joe Bisbiglia, questioned the ballistics expert about the veracity of the science, noting that a National Academy of Sciences report found ballistic imaging was best used to indicate a gun’s make and model but may not be conclusive enough to link a specific gun.

Jaco Swanepoel, criminologist with Forensic Analytical Sciences, a private Hayward lab the agencies used to analyze the bullets and gun, said that as a bullet is shot through the barrel, any imperfections inside the barrel such as marks and grooves can leave unique markings on the bullet casing as it passes through. That creates a sort of fingerprint on expended bullets or casings that can be linked back to a specific gun, the criminologist said.

His analysis linked the casings collected at Sargent-Deselle’s July 6 slaying with bullet casings Santa Rosa police collected from an April 21 Rockwell Place shooting that wounded a 19-year-old man and the May 4 shooting that wounded a 16-year-old girl at South Davis Park.

The preliminary proceedings were expected to resume Nov. 12.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.