- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
Prosecution presents detectives' interviews with man accused of stabbing neighbor to death
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The jury in the murder trial of a Lakeport man spent Friday listening to audio and watching video of his interrogations with sheriff's investigators in the hours after he is alleged to have stabbed a neighbor to death, believing wrongly that the man was a child molester.
Ivan Garcia Oliver, 34, is on trial for the death of 67-year-old Michael Dodele, who he allegedly stabbed 60 times on Nov. 20, 2007.
The fatal confrontation occurred just days after Oliver discovered that Dodele was listed on the Megan's Law sex offender registration Web site. Oliver mistakenly concluded that Dodele was a child molester, but he actually had served prison time for raping an adult female.
The defense alleges that Dodele was killed during a fight that erupted after Oliver confronted him.
Corey Paulich, a longtime Lake County Sheriff's deputy and the case's lead detective, had begun testimony late Thursday afternoon and continued on Friday morning, discussing blood evidence found in Oliver's home, the discovery of Dodele's cell phone and two knives Oliver is believed to have thrown out the window of his bathroom.
At the request of Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff, Paulich removed the two knives in their plastic canisters from the bags in which they had been packaged as evidence. He said blood was found on one of the knives.
Inside a white Buick parked next to Oliver's home at the Western Hills Mobile Home Park investigators found a half-full bleach bottle with blood on the bottom of it, which had been placed behind the driver's seat, and blood-stained clothes and a blanket in the trunk.
Paulich attended Dodele's autopsy at the Napa County Sheriff-Coroner's Office a week after his death. They found a small folded blade knife in his pocket, which was closed and had no blood on it, he said.
Hinchcliff played a 13-minute audio recording of Oliver speaking to Paulich and other deputies after being taken into custody at his residence, which was across from Dodele's trailer.
At first he refused to tell them his name. Speaking quickly and frequently repeating himself, his sentences peppered with profanity, Oliver alleged that Dodele had tried to hurt his 4-year-old son. Deputies could be heard telling him to calm down.
When asked his first name, he responded, “Sunshine.”
He followed by saying, “I did it,” and finally gave his correct first name.
The video of his interview at the sheriff's office later on the day of the stabbing had Oliver pacing around the interview room, wearing a beanie and a denim coat, with no shirt underneath.
He appeared agitated, frequently got up and down, fidgeted, rocked back and forth in his chair and stepped through the handcuffs so his hands were in front of him. His right hand, which he is alleged to have injured during the stabbing, was heavily bandaged.
Deputies gave him water, and later brought him a hamburger, chips and soda, and let him smoke cigarettes.
Paulich and Deputy Brian Kenner asked Oliver if he knew he was under arrest “for what went down.”
“What are you talking about?” Oliver replied.
They pressed him on what happened with Dodele, and his accusations that Dodele touched his young son.
“You're wasting your time, man,” Oliver told investigators. He also told them they were asking him stupid questions.
Paulich and Kenner frequently came and went from the room. Oliver would sit for a time then go and knock on the door to begin speaking with them again.
At one point, with Paulich and Kenner having sat nearby in silence for some time, Oliver blurted out, “I killed a man. I killed a man. I killed a man.”
He repeated his allegation that Dodele had touched his son. “I'm a father. I reacted like any father would react.”
“How did you kill him?” Paulich asked.
Oliver didn't respond.
Another lengthy silence was punctuated by a rapid response. “It was in the blink of an eye. It was in the blink of an eye,” he said, but would offer no details on how it happened.
At another point he got angry with detectives, who he accused of “fishing.”
“Ask me a direct question,” he said, yet didn't offer straight answers when they pressed him on details of the physical assault on Dodele.
Kenner asked Oliver if he grabbed Dodele. Oliver put his head down and didn't respond.
“I just want to know what this guy did to your kid,” said Kenner.
Oliver, in the portions of the interview shown Friday, didn't tell them.
“What do you want me to say, what do you expect me to say?” he asked.
Testimony will resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 1.
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