THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH ADDITIONAL DETAILS ABOUT THE DAY’S EVENTS.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Wednesday a jury found a Clearlake Oaks man guilty of murder and numerous other charges for a deadly late night shooting in June 2011 that killed a little boy.
Paul William Braden, 22, sat beside his attorney, Doug Rhoades, as the verdicts were read Wednesday afternoon before a packed courtroom.
After about seven hours of deliberations, the five-woman, seven-man jury – who had begun hearing testimony at the end of February – found Braden guilty of first-degree murder, five counts of attempted murder, two counts of mayhem, six counts of assault with a firearm and discharge of a firearm at an inhabited dwelling.
The jury also found true 55 special allegations involving use of a firearm and causing great bodily injury to the victims.
Braden's jury came to the same conclusion as the jury chosen for his codefendant, Orlando Joseph Lopez Jr., 24, also of Clearlake Oaks. Lopez's jury returned a verdict last Friday after only four hours of deliberations.
Both men now face the time equivalent of multiple life sentences when they are sentenced by visiting Yolo County Judge Doris Shockley later this summer.
Braden and Lopez were tried for shooting to death 4-year-old Skyler Rapp and wounding his mother, Desiree Kirby, and her boyfriend, Ross Sparks, along with his brother Andrew Sparks, and friends Ian Griffith and Joseph Armijo on Saturday, June 18, 2011.
“It’s just a relief,” Kirby said after the verdicts were handed down.
District Attorney Don Anderson alleged that an adult graduation fight in early June 2011 led to tensions between factions connected to Braden and Lopez and to Sparks and his family.
In his case, Anderson presented evidence showing that Braden and Lopez, who had been at a party at another Clearlake home on the night of the shooting, left briefly and returned, with Braden having a shotgun.
Witnesses said Braden sawed the butt off his shotgun, turning it into a pistol grip and wrapping it with duct tape. He then allegedly sat and racked the weapon repeatedly and made comments about being bored and wanting to go and shoot someone.
The prosecution's case against the two men said they were driven by former codefendant Kevin Stone to Ross Sparks' and Kirby's Lakeshore Drive home, where they shot into the crowd of friends and family just before before 11 p.m.
The little boy, who was roasting marshmallows at a barbecue in the yard, was hit in the gunfire and died at the scene. Kirby suffered permanent, disabling injuries.
Shotgun blasts also had hit penetrated the wall of the couple's apartment, according to testimony at trial. There was evidence that shotgun pellets hit the wall above where Kirby's and Sparks' baby daughter was sleeping in a playpen.
Stone, who reached an agreement with Don Anderson last fall to plead to lesser charges, testified at trial that both Braden and Lopez had shotguns, but that only Braden had actively been shooting at the scene.
However, witnesses at the Sparks and Kirby home testified to seeing muzzle blasts coming from two areas along a fence that separated the yard from the home of a neighbor, Curtis Eeds.
Stone said Lopez convinced him to drive them to Eeds' home on the pretext of committing a robbery, but once in Eeds' backyard Stone said Braden began shooting into the group.
The three men then fled the scene in a borrowed car, crashed it nearby, and according to Stone threw their guns into some bushes before running away on foot.
Braden and Lopez would both be picked up within days, but Stone would evade law enforcement until the end of June 2011, when he was arrested in Santa Rosa.
Anderson said Wednesday that Stone, 30, is set to be sentenced Aug. 14. He's facing a maximum time in state prison of 10 years, four months, for his no contest plea to conspiracy to commit robbery, accessory to murder and possession of a .22-caliber rifle by a prohibited person.
Braden's jury started deliberations on Tuesday morning, worked throughout the day and returned to continue deliberations on Wednesday morning.
By mid-morning they had reached their united conclusion in the case, with the reading scheduled for the afternoon.
Kirby, and Ross and Andrew Sparks were among the victims in the courtroom. They and their family and friends filled one side of the courtroom, where three correctional officers and three bailiffs were staged for security.
Also in the courtroom were Clearlake Police detectives, District Attorney's Office staff and Undersheriff Pat Turturici.
Unlike the Lopez verdict session – during which the victims and their families had shouted with joy when the murder verdict was read – the courtroom was silent as Braden's verdicts were handed down. The jurors looked grave; one of the male jurors seated in the front row had his hands folded in a way reminiscent of prayer.
Braden, dressed in a dark suit, mostly looked down at the table in front of him as the court clerk read the 15 guilty verdicts.
Afterward, Shockley thanked the jurors for their long service and excused them. As they made their way out, some of them nodded at Anderson.
After the jurors were released, Braden admitted to the court that he had a 2008 conviction for first-degree burglary. Shockley accepted the admission.
Braden's sentencing was set for 1:30 p.m. Aug. 9.
After sentencing was set, Braden was placed in handcuffs and removed from the courtroom.
Rhoades did not offer comment following the verdict.
Anderson was pleased with the verdict. He congratulated the Clearlake Police Department on its investigation, which supported the case’s successful prosecution.
“They did an outstanding job,” Anderson said.
Anderson, who had been called to the scene of the shooting that night, gave particular credit to Officer Andrew Jones, one of Clearlake Police’s newer officers, who testified during the trial to being one of the first on scene following the shooting.
Jones helped control the scene, and was calm and collected in the midst of a bad situation, Anderson said. “I was very impressed with his actions at the scene.”
Anderson said the entire police department worked on the case, which he said was a team effort. It also was the last case for Det. Tom Clements, who has since retired but who was present for both the preliminary hearing and the trial.
The Braden and Lopez trial was Anderson’s first criminal prosecution. He said he isn’t planning to take on any other cases immediately, but wanted to focus on administrative duties in his office.
As involved as he’s been in the case, he said a motive for the shooting of the child and the five adults never came out.
Anderson said of Braden, “I wish I knew what motivated a person like him to do this. It was just senseless.”
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