Desert Hot Springs Man Convicted Of Shooting Girlfriend

A Desert Hot Springs man was found guilty today of beating and shooting his girlfriend at their apartment during a gathering the couple hosted for friends.

Despite Amanda Prock’s insistence during her testimony that her boyfriend did not fire the shot that injured her, a jury convicted 25-year-old Michael Hartwell of attempted murder and three other felony counts.

Prosecutors said the defendant shot Prock, with whom he has three children, around 4 a.m. Dec. 15 during a night of drinking with friends at the apartment they shared at 13355 Verbena Drive.

Hartwell was also found guilty of two counts of inflicting injury on a domestic partner and one count of assault with a deadly weapon, and the jury found true sentence-enhancing allegations that he caused great bodily injury and used a firearm.

The panel deliberated about a day before reaching its verdicts.

Prock testified Wednesday that she was drunk and did not remember being shot, but she insisted that Hartwell did not pull the trigger.

In his closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Jake Silva countered that, according to Prock’s own testimony, her last memory of the night was “Mike in my face,” which another witness said was the beginning of a fight that ended with her being shot.

“I want all of you to remember the last thing (Prock) remembered,” Silva told jurors. “I submit to you, after the lights went out, she was shot and (Hartwell) is guilty.”

Outside the courtroom this afternoon, Deputy Public Defender Joe Forth said finding Hartwell guilty of attempted murder was too extreme based on the facts of the case.

“I don’t see how they came with attempted murder,” he said. “There was never anything near enough proof to say it was premeditated.”

Prock’s friend, Lachevette Bradford, testified that while she and several other people were hanging out and drinking beer and vodka with the couple, the two got into a quarrel and Hartwell straddled her and began punching her.

About 10 minutes after Hartwell stopped beating Prock, he shot her in the neck, Bradford said.

Prock testified that she thought Bradford, her childhood friend, was lying about the shooting because “she didn’t like (Hartwell).” She also conceded that she still loves Hartwell and did not want to see anything bad happen to him.

Forth said during his closing argument that Bradford’s story had changed several times since December, which should lead jurors to doubt her accuracy.

Forth pointed to one instance in which Bradford told a dispatcher on her initial 911 call that she did not know who shot Prock, but later identified the shooter as Hartwell once he had been arrested.

“There are not minor discrepancies, but really big discrepancies,” Forth said.

Forth argued that the beating Bradford described — in which she said Hartwell was hitting Prock in the face for several minutes — would have left more marks than just two black eyes.

“If he was pounding someone with both fists for two minutes, her face would look like mincemeat,” Forth said.

Silva countered that Bradford was one of the few people at the gathering who was not drunk, though Prock said her friend played a drinking game with her that involved shots of vodka.

Silva also disputed Prock’s claim that she suffered her two black eyes from falling after she was shot, not from a beating by Hartwell.

“You really think that happened when she fell down after she was shot? Give me a break,” the prosecutor said.

Responding to Forth’s allegations about the veracity of Bradford’s testimony, Silva said she was able to provide specific details as to which of Prock’s children was in her bedroom when she was shot and where she fell afterward.

“How would Ms. Bradford know where Ms. Prock fell if she wasn’t in the room?” Silva asked the jury. “She was there and she was it and she was the only one who is willing to tell you what happened.”

A gunshot residue test performed on Hartwell at the scene came up negative, which Forth said indicated his client was not the shooter. The attorney said someone else at the gathering fired the gun at Prock.

Desert Hot Springs police Officer Philip Weigle testified that negative results of such tests do not always mean that the subject didn’t fire a gun.