Man, 28, convicted of attacking people, deputies in La Quinta home with rocks
A La Quinta man was convicted today of attacking several people with rocks, including two sheriff's deputies, one of whom shot him.
Christopher Curci, 28, was found guilty of two felony counts each of assault with a deadly weapon to cause great bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon on an officer, and burglary, according to court records. He was also found guilty of one felony count each of attempted voluntary manslaughter and threats to cause death or great bodily injury.
Jurors also found true sentence-enhancing allegations of using a weapon during a felony and inflicting great bodily injury. He is set to be sentenced Jan. 29, 2024.
The charges stem from his attack on Jan. 16, 2019, in a home in the 77300 block of Avenida Montezuma in La Quinta, where he attacked two people with a rock then threw it at deputies, one whom was struck.
Deputy District Attorney Melina Londos and Curci's defense attorney Ryan Markson finished delivering their closing arguments Wednesday afternoon at the Larson Justice Center in Indio and jurors began deliberating immediately after.
Markson told jurors his client didn't go to the house with the intent to kill anyone. He said the rock used was about 5.5 inches, and that if Curci really intended to kill anyone he would've chosen a different weapon. Markson also suggested jurors should question how someone can kill another person with a rock.
According to the defense attorney, Curci went to the home without a weapon, picked a rock up from the front of the house, walked past a police car, and went into the home, but he didn't inflict great bodily injury on anyone. He asked jurors to consider the level of injuries the victims sustained and determine whether they equal great bodily injury.
Londos rebutted the argument by telling jurors the sequence of events that day shows the defendant's intent.
The incident started when Curci broke a game console and television belonging to the victim, Greg, then later sent threatening messages to him.
According to Londos, Curci sent a text message that read, "For the record, I want you both gone. So say your final prayers. You're dead, all of you."
At that point, the victim reported the threat and messages, so deputies responded the home and were investigating when the defendant showed up again, according to Londos. Video from the front of the home shows Curci hitting one victim in the head with such force that he was knocked to the ground, and then throwing a rock into the house, where one of the deputies was struck.
The victim who was knocked down had blood all over him and had to get staples in his head, while the deputy believed that she had been shot because of the force with which the rock was thrown, Londos said.
Londos also showed jurors a video of Curci being interviewed after his arrest, where he was seen saying that he meant for the texts to be taken as threats and that he thought of grabbing an axe and using it to cut someone's head off, but ultimately decided that was going too far.
During Curci's preliminary hearing, Riverside County sheriff's Investigator Jason Trudeau testified that deputies were sent to the home regarding the burglary and vandalism incident reported earlier that day.
In a recorded interview involving Trudeau and Curci played during the hearing, Curci appears to admit to breaking into the house earlier that day as "payback" for the homeowner's family allegedly previously burglarizing his home.
"I went over there to confront him, and maybe even beat him up,'' Curci says in the recording.
He contended in the interview with Trudeau that he only intended to hit one of the men, and that the other, identified only as an elderly man by Curci, was mistakenly caught in the crossfire.
"I had no intent on harming them,'' Curci said of the deputies.
Curci allegedly ignored commands to stop throwing the rocks, and continued walking towards the deputies, which is when he was shot twice in the stomach.
