LAKEPORT, Calif. – A man accused of a fatal 2011 shooting took the stand in his own defense on Thursday as his trial nears its completion.
Daniel Ray Loyd, 53, of Nice, spent the morning and part of the afternoon on the stand in Judge Stephen Hedstrom's courtroom.
Loyd is on trial for the fatal shooting of 48-year-old Cindy Yvette Quiett of Upper Lake early on the morning of Sept. 13, 2011.
On that day, Loyd – who on Thursday admitted to selling drugs – went to Lucerne with plans to rob Patrick Ryden, according to the investigation. Loyd said he had given Ryden about $1,200 worth of methamphetamine to sell.
Although Loyd initially told investigators that he had planned to rob Ryden, he has since said he went instead to take back the drugs after Ryden refused to return his calls.
Loyd said he went to Lucerne and confronted Ryden, holding a gun to his head. During an ensuing struggle, Ryden pushed the gun away and Loyd shot Quiett in the stomach, which he said was an accident. She died later at Sutter Lakeside Hospital.
For several weeks prosecutor John DeChaine has presented evidence and testimony in the case, accompanied at court by sheriff's Det. John Drewrey, who arrested Loyd within hours of the shooting. Loyd has remained in custody since that time.
Loyd's attorney, David Markham, presented his defense on Thursday, with Loyd and sheriff's Deputy Nicole Costanza being the only witnesses he called.
DeChaine cross-examined Loyd at length about a letter the prosecution was seeking to enter into evidence.
In the letter – which Loyd admitted on the stand that he wrote on April 21 to a female friend who visits him in jail each week – he told the woman that she needed to contact other witnesses in the case to explain the felony murder theory to them and tell them that if they came to court to testify, he was going to prison for life.
At one point, the attorneys had a sidebar with Hedstrom, who had the jury briefly removed from the courtroom.
With the jury out of the court, Markham moved for a mistrial.
He said he had gone to great lengths to keep from the jury that Loyd was in custody.
Markham made the motion due to DeChaine's line of questioning about the letter, which mentioned Loyd's female friend making jail visits.
“It was just put out there for the jury,” said Markham, explaining that if someone is in custody for a crime, it tends to give charges more credibility.
Hedstrom noted that it already had been disclosed to the jury that Loyd has had several felony and misdemeanor convictions, and in the questioning the timing of the jail visits wasn't disclosed.
With Loyd's last conviction being in 2005, if it was known that the woman was visiting him over the last three and a half years, Markham was concerned that jurors would know he was in custody for the current charges.
DeChaine said he would be comfortable if the court admonished the jury to strike statements of concern that resulted from the questioning related to the letter. He said the indication of Loyd being in custody was not intentional, and the letter has been authenticated.
DeChaine also noted that before the last court break, there had been concern about correctional staff taking Loyd to the restroom while jurors were standing in the hallway. DeChaine said he heard Markham say not to worry about it, that they – meaning the jurors – already know about Loyd's custody status.
Hedstrom denied the mistrial motion, explaining that he felt the reference to the in-custody visits was minuscule. “They may or may not have totally picked up on it,” he said of the jurors, calling the concern a “tempest in a teapot” and not something he saw as creating prejudice.
When the testimony reconvened before the jury, DeChaine read portions from Loyd's letter to his friend, which gave the phone number and address for the father of a witness as well as directions to his house. Loyd told the woman to get the word out to everyone about the felony murder issue.
“Why don't we just read the letter,” said Loyd, suggesting DeChaine was nitpicking it “and misleading the jury.”
Hedstrom stopped Loyd from saying anything further out of the direct line of questioning.
When DeChaine asked Loyd if he wanted the witnesses to not show up at court, Loyd replied, “I wanted them to understand the felony murder rule.” If they understood it, he said, “They wouldn't show up.”
Markham asked Loyd why he wanted the witnesses to understand the felony murder rule. He replied that he wanted them to know how harsh it is, and no matter if the killing was an accident or unintentional negligence, he was facing life in prison.
Next, Markham asked Loyd what he said to Ryden when he pulled the gun on him. “I told him to give me his s***,” said Loyd.
Loyd was asked to describe his state of mind on the day of the shooting, when he was speaking to Drewrey. He said he was overwhelmed with remorse, and had been up for 10 days straight without any sleep, having taken half a gram of methamphetamine each of those 10 days.
Markham then called Costanza – who had testified earlier in the trial as a prosecution witness – to the stand.
In her original report, Costanza said that in an interview Angel Dusty Spring – who originally had been taken into custody along with Loyd because she had been with him at the time of the shooting – told her that she knew who Loyd was going to meet that day but didn't know he had a gun.
After listening again to a recording of the interview, Costanza said she was uncertain if Spring had acknowledged knowing who Loyd was going to meet.
The defense then rested, and with DeChaine unable to contact a rebuttal witness, the court adjourned for the day, and is expected to complete witness testimony early Friday.
Closing arguments in the case are anticipated to take place on or before this coming Thursday.
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Man on trial for 2011 murder takes the witness stand
- Elizabeth Larson
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