Daily Republic
VALLEJO
- The fatal Labor Day shooting of Matt Garcia may have been the result
of mistaken identity over a $50 drug dispute that had nothing to do
with the late Fairfield City Councilman.
Garcia's fate of being in the wrong place at the wrong time was detailed during a two-day probable cause hearing that wrapped up Friday for two men facing murder charges for Garcia shooting death.
Henry D. Williams, 32, the alleged shooter, and Eugene A. Combs, 45, were ordered to stand trial for murder. Judge Robert Bowers ordered them to be arraigned Feb. 18. They are jailed without bail.
On the morning of the shooting Combs had gone to the Silverado Drive home in Cordelia of Ryan Estes. The home is across the street from where Garcia was shot that night.
Combs later told police he gave Estes 'his last' $50 for methamphetamine and Estes told him he'd meet him a short time later at a nearby gas station. Instead, Estes skipped the rendezvous and ignored dozens of calls from an increasingly agitated Combs who threatened to burn Estes' car and home.
'Combs is the catalyst for this whole tragedy,' prosecutor George Williamson said. 'He set into motion an armed Mr. Williams to do his business.'
Combs told police he and Williams had both got methamphetamine from Estes in the past. Estes said in an interview Thursday he deeply regrets doing something that set off the deadly chain of events.
'I said I could, knowing I couldn't,' Estes said about getting the methamphetamine.
Estes, 28, rejects being labeled a drug dealer in court. He knew Combs, Williams and Williams' girlfriend, Nicole Stewart, for about six months and says they used to party together.
'I knew people who provided me dope, drug dealers I knew,' Estes said. He said he regrets taking the money and then spending it on beer and other items for a Labor Day party he attended. 'At the time I was a guy who partied and that was it. These guys were my friends. . . . Now my life is totally away from partying.'
Stewart, 33, was the first witness to testify on the second day of the hearing. With a soft German accent she described hastily leaving a holiday barbecue with Williams, who has a criminal record in California and Nevada. At the barbecue Williams had been drinking beer and showing off the old gun, according to the testimony of Arnil Porter, the barbecue's host.
Williams and Stewart went to Suisun City where they met up with an angry Combs about two hours before the shooting.
After Combs was arrested, he told police Williams claimed he had been shorted by Estes in the past, according to police testimony at the hearing. The two men fueled each other's growing anger as they headed to Silverado Drive with Stewart driving.
Estes was not home so the trio started to leave when Garcia drove past them in his Cadillac Escalade. Williams and Combs argued briefly over whether Estes was in the Escalade and Williams ordered his girlfriend to pull over.
Garcia, 22, had gone to a Silverado Drive home of a friend. The trio were parked about 50 yards up the street. After giving a friend a hug in the driveway of her home, Garcia was shot once in the back of the head.
Stewart repeatedly said she did not see or know about the gun until Williams jumped from the car and fired several shots while she sat in the car eating chicken.
Stewart could not recall Combs calling Estes moments after the shooting and saying 'those bullets were meant for you.'
Estes recalls the threat differently with a message saying '(expletive), that bullet was meant for you.'
After the trio left the shooting scene, Williams went to his mother's Fairfield home and then to a neighbor's home, according to testimony. He gave a gun to Francisco 'Paco' Perez and the next day he told Perez to dispose of the old gun. Perez, testifying under a grant of immunity from prosecutors, said he threw the semi-automatic gun into Suisun Bay at the Benicia Bridge.
Prosecutors have also opted not to charge Stewart for her role in the shooting. They have put her into a witness protection program receiving more than $6,000 for rent and food in the last six months, she testified.
Another prosecution witness testified he sold an old gun to Combs, an auto mechanic, a few weeks before the shooting.
Williams then went with Stewart to their East Tabor Avenue apartment where a short time later he was drinking beer and telling a neighbor he had just 'unloaded a clip on a guy talking bad about his mechanic in Cordelia.'
Combs' attorney unsuccessfully argued Combs should not face a murder charge because he did not know Williams was going to kill somebody and did not know Williams had a gun until a few moments before the shooting.
Williams' attorney unsuccessfully argued that the distance between Williams and Garcia combined with the fact that only one of the several gun shots fired struck Garcia added up to involuntary manslaughter.
Reach Jess Sullivan at 427-6919 or Jsullivan@dailyrepublic.net.
