Lawyers Defending Alleged Police Gunman Want Evidence Sealed

Lawyers for an ex-con accused of gunning down a Riverside police officer earlier this month are expected to argue today that search warrant records and other material allegedly tying the defendant to the case should remain sealed.

Earl Ellis Green, 44, is charged with first-degree murder, vehicle theft, being a convicted felon in possession of a gun and special circumstance allegations of killing a peace officer and committing a murder to avoid arrest.

There also are gun and great bodily injury allegations.

Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco is expected to announce this week or next whether prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Green, provided he’s convicted. He’s slated to be arraigned on Dec. 16.

Green is represented by Deputy Public Defenders O.G. Magno and Gail Crane, who believe their client’s case would be prejudiced if the records detailing the evidence collected when search warrants were executed at his residence and two other locations is publicized, even though a trial remains easily a year or two away.

Green allegedly killed four-year Riverside police Officer Ryan Patrick Bonaminio on the night of Nov. 7.

One person witnessed the shooting at Fairmount Park, on Market Street near the Pomona (60) Freeway, which Pacheco and police Chief Sergio Diaz both characterized as an “ambush.”

It’s possible Bonaminio was killed with his own sidearm. Pacheco said the 27-year-old pleaded for his life.

He was pursuing Green on foot following a hit-and-run crash the defendant allegedly caused while driving a stolen big rig, which he stopped in front of the park after Bonaminio signaled him to pull over, according to police.

Court records indicate Green has had run-ins with the law for more than two decades. He has a half-dozen convictions, including for battery on a police officer in 1990.

His latest conviction, in 2007, was for vandalism, and he was sentenced to three years in prison. He could have faced even more time, but the judge dismissed several of his prior convictions.

Pacheco described the judicial system’s handling of the ex-con — who served half of the aggregate time to which he’d been sentenced over the years — as an example of “a system that failed.”

Bonaminio was the first Riverside police officer killed in the line of duty since January 2001. The Riverside native, who also served in the U.S. Army as a military policeman, doing two tours in Iraq, joined the police force in 2006 while still in the Army reserves.