Man shot multiple times by police receives probation for brandishing gun
A Coachella man who was shot eight times by an Indio police officer after firing a gun at a Coachella mobile home park pleaded guilty to brandishing a firearm at an officer today and was immediately
sentenced to three years probation.
Mario Alberto Soto, 43, was convicted last month of shooting at an inhabited dwelling and negligent discharge of a firearm in connection with the Nov. 13, 2014, gunfire at the Coachella Mobile Home Park.
Read: Deputies investigate officer-involved shooting in Indio
Jurors deadlocked 11-1 in favor of guilt on a felony count of brandishing a firearm in the presence of Indio Police Officer Christopher Shannon, but Soto pleaded guilty to that count during a Friday court hearing, rather than opt for a retrial.
Authorities converged on the mobile home park after Soto fired a gun, with one bullet entering a neighboring home in the early morning hours. No one was struck by the gunfire.
Sheriff’s deputies and Indio police found Soto’s trailer on fire, then saw him drive off in a Ford Mustang, according to Deputy District Attorney John Rodnick. The Mustang was later found abandoned, with a .380-caliber handgun inside, he said.
Soto was later approached by Shannon on Dr. Carreon Boulevard, and as the officer approached him, Soto pulled a handgun from his waistband, prompting Shannon to respond with gunfire, according to police.
Soto was struck by bullets, then fell or jumped into bushes, and was shot during a second volley of gunfire because he wouldn’t drop his gun, according to the prosecutor.
The officer was cleared in the shooting by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.
Defense attorney Leonard Cravens maintained that Soto never fled from officers and never pointed the gun — which was unloaded — at Shannon, nor did he understand that Shannon was a police officer. The attorney said Shannon arrived on scene and demanded that Soto “Show me your hands,” a command Soto was unable to understand as he primarily speaks Spanish.
Cravens also said Soto was turned away from Shannon, preventing him from leveling the gun at the officer, who he accused of lying about what happened.
“Officer Shannon’s covering up what he did,” Cravens said. “Mr. Soto didn’t point a gun at him.”
Rodnick told jurors that Shannon did what was necessary to protect himself, and emphasized the tension of a situation in which officers are searching for an armed suspect.
“It is insulting to say that it was Officer Shannon who was out of control,” Rodnick told the jury. “To argue that (Soto) is a victim is a disservice to the people who suffered in this incident.”
The prosecutor argued that Soto “caused this situation at each and every stage,” while Cravens disputed whether there was proof that Soto fired the initial shots that prompted the police investigation.
Cravens said ballistics testing was never performed to determine whether Soto’s gun matched the bullets at the mobile home park, while Rodnick said spent casings matching the same type of gun were found near Soto’s trailer, and that the defendant confessed to the shooting when interviewed at a
hospital following surgery.
Rodnick said Soto told officers he’d been on drugs and was depressed about a recent separation from his wife, but Cravens said little credible evidence could be derived from the “so-called confession” at the hospital, as Soto was just coming out of major surgery.
Cravens alleged that Soto had no motive to point an unloaded gun at Shannon other than to commit suicide by cop, a theory that was never advanced by prosecutors.
Since the shooting, Soto filed an excessive force federal lawsuit against Shannon, the Indio Police Department and the city of Indio. Prior to the trial, Riverside County Superior Court Judge James Hawkins ruled that the jury would not be allowed to hear any references to the lawsuit.
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