VALLEJO - New details emerged Tuesday about the slaying of Fairfield City Councilman Matt Garcia.
The two men facing murder charges for Garcia's shooting death had been targeting a drug dealer who they believed had taken money from one of them without providing him methamphetamine, according to testimony during the first day of a probable cause hearing for Henry D. Williams and Eugene A. Combs.
The day culminated with the testimony of Nicole Stewart, Williams ex-girlfriend, who drove the pair to the Silverado Drive home of the drug dealer, Ryan J. Estes, on the night of Sept. 1, 2008.
Stewart and Williams had been at Estes home in Cordelia earlier in the day and later met up with Combs at a Suisun City fast food restaurant before returning to the home.
The trio knew each other from their jobs at a medical supply company where they worked and Estes had previously sold them methamphetamine. Stewart was nine months pregnant with Williams' child at the time of the shooting and they were living in an apartment with her two teenage children.
As they drove to Estes' home Williams acted 'very annoyed' and Combs seemed really upset, Stewart testified. She doesn't face any charges related to the incident.
After learning Estes was no longer home, they started to drive away when a car passed by, sparking a brief exchange between Williams and Combs about whether Estes was in the other car.
After Combs saw the other car turn around and appear to flash its headlights, Williams ordered Stewart to pull over and stop. They were about 50 yards from the other car when Williams got out and walked to the back of their car.
Stewart testified she then heard three pops before Williams got back in the car, his shirt wrapped in his hands cradling a gun she had not seen up until that moment.
Judge Robert Bowers interrupted Stewart's testimony late in the afternoon and ordered the hearing to resume Friday morning.
Earlier in the day one of the first Fairfield police officers, Kiera Wilcox, who responded to the shooting scene recounted what she was told by Garcia's friend , Jennifer Tarbell, who Garcia had gone to visit at her Silverado Drive home.
Tarbell and Garcia were talking on their cell phones as he arrived at her home. She walked out from the backyard and hugged him after he got out of his car. They were laughing about their inside joke about the difference in their heights as they were standing in her driveway.
Tarbell heard four or five pops, looked over at a man standing next to a car down the street and saw a flash of light. The only description of the man she could give Wilcox was that he was black or Hispanic. No height, weight or clothing description.
Tarbell started running toward the front door of her home when she heard the car drive off.
A man across the street from Tarbell's home heard the same pops and he ran out into the street expecting to see kids with firecrackers. Ben Griffin testified he saw a man getting into a car down the street and a man on the ground. Then he heard Tarbell screaming and yelling. As Griffin got closer to the man on the sidewalk he recognized Garcia as a good friend of his family.
The hearing resumes Friday morning in Department 15 in Vallejo.
Reach Jess Sullivan at 427-6919 or Jsullivan@dailyrepublic.net.
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