Key witness testifies in road-rage trial

[Danney Ball]

 

Key witness testifies in road-rage trial

Acquaintance links co-defendants to fatal shooting

 

REDWOOD CITY — The key prosecution witness began testimony Tuesday in the murder trial stemming from the road-rage killing of a 22-year-old Pacifica man more than two years ago.

Richard Sedillo, who is currently in the witness-protection program, testified Tuesday afternoon against his former acquaintances, co-defendants Tito Sedeno and John Navarro.

Sedillo was in Sedeno's white Chevy Tahoe in the early morning of Jan. 12, 2003, and described in court seeing the two defendants open fire out of the right side of the vehicle.

The prosecution says that one of those bullets fired by either Sedeno or Navarro was the one that killed Pacifica resident Raymond Gardner, who was shot in the head while asleep in a friend's car traveling along the same stretch of Interstate 380.

Gardner was with three friends who were caravanning back to Pacifica from San Jose in two cars before crossing paths with Sedeno's sport utility vehicle.

Sedillo, who was in the front passenger seat at the time, recalled first Navarro opening fire from the back seat, and then Sedeno leaning over to fire multiple shots out of the front passenger window while still driving.

"[Sedeno] had his hand about 10 inches away from my face and was firing nonstop … until there [were] no more bullets left," Sedillo said inside a crowded courtroom filled with family members of the defendants and the victim.

Sedillo testified that he tried at first to push the gun away from his face, but eventually leaned back and waited for the firing to stop. He then described Sedeno's reaction to what had just happened.

"It was like it was nothing," he said. "He didn't say nothing, he just kept driving."

Sedillo next testified that Sedeno drove to his Pacifica apartment, where he stashed his gun in the closet, and where Navarro reloaded his gun from a Zip-lock bag full of bullets.

The three then drove to a Denny's restaurant to eat before initiating a long police chase winding down U.S. Highway 101, across the San Mateo Bridge, north through the East Bay and back across the Bay Bridge, before finally ending with the capture of all three in San Francisco.

Sedillo ended Tuesday's proceedings by admitting to prosecuting District Attorney Sean Gallagher that he was nervous testifying against two men he labeled as San Francisco gang members.

Sedillo will again take the stand today for the prosecution before the defense begins its cross-examination.

The co-defendants' attorneys have not denied that the fatal shots came from Sedeno's SUV, but rather have argued that Sedillo was the actual shooter, painting him as a man with a lengthy criminal record trying to save his own skin.

E-mail: efle...@examiner.com