After a preliminary listening to for 2 males accused in a lethal 2016 Vallejo pawn store theft that ended within the retailer proprietor’s gunshot slaying, the wounding of an worker and the demise of the shop’s canine, a decide has set a held-to-answer arraignment for the pair.
Amonie Azoun Andre Summerise, 27, of Vallejo, and Kashius Tait Brazeal, 25, a state jail inmate previously of Vallejo, appeared Thursday in Division 2 in Vallejo for the listening to, a sort-of mini-trial, with the presentation of proof and witness testimony.
Afterward, Choose Daniel Healy decided there was sufficient proof to carry the 2 males for the arraignment and set it for 10 a.m. Might 18 within the Justice Constructing. At the moment, the decide will hear a Pitchess movement, a request by the protection to look at the personnel data of law enforcement officials concerned within the case, sometimes if an officer or officers are suspected of extreme use of drive.
After the arraignment, a decide in a prison case often units a trial date and dates for added pretrial issues or motions.
Through the previous 26 months, amid the continuing pandemic, Solano County court docket officers diminished court docket operations and rescheduled proceedings, as needed, in accord with county, state, and state Supreme Court docket public well being directives, which can account for delays within the case.
Because the case has wound its means by way of the courts, proceedings towards a suspected third individual initially charged, Elijah Elliott Summerise, 24, brother of Amonie, have been dismissed Sept. 11, 2019, court docket data point out.
Brazeal and the elder Summerise stay in Solano County Jail with out bail.
Deputy District Lawyer Bruce Flynn has led the prosecution of the case, which falls beneath the particular circumstances class as a result of the killing was dedicated throughout a theft, a criminal offense caught on the shop’s video surveillance digital camera. The 2 defendants face the demise penalty or life with out the opportunity of parole if convicted at trial. It’s nonetheless unclear if Flynn will pursue the demise penalty.
After proceedings in October 2019, the protection attorneys for the elder Summerise, Robert Boyle and Sean Swartz, deputy alternate public defenders, confirmed that “the demise penalty continues to be on the desk.” As a result of the costs make it a possible demise penalty case, they have been assigned to symbolize Summerise collectively.
Vallejo prison protection lawyer Dustin M. Gordon represents Brazeal, who has been transferred from Calipatria State Jail, the place he’s serving time for a previous felony conviction.
Summerise was arraigned earlier in Division 4 in Fairfield and pleaded not responsible to the costs and particular allegations.
Regardless of Swartz’s declare in regards to the standing of the allegations towards Amonie Summerise, court docket data point out that, apart from first-degree homicide and tried homicide fees, his consumer faces three counts of second-degree theft. The elder Summerise is also accused of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Apart from homicide and tried homicide counts, Brazeal is charged with second-degree theft, being a felon in possession of a firearm, stemming from a previous conviction in Santa Clara County, and a cost of killing the shop’s canine.
Vallejo police data point out officers responded at about 3:10 p.m. on Dec. 20, 2016, to experiences of a potential theft in progress on the Pawn Benefit Retailer on Springs Street.
Retailer proprietor Timothy Pult, 49, of San Anselmo, and store worker Josh Poole, of Fairfax, have been discovered inside, every affected by gunshot wounds. Pult’s canine, Copper, a Chesapeake Bay retriever, was discovered shot to demise close to the shop entrance.
Police initially launched a surveillance video of the theft in Jan. 2017 in an effort to determine the suspects. In July, they launched 24 seconds of footage that confirmed two males enter the store, their faces lined, weapons of their palms.
The publicly out there footage doesn’t present the shootings, but it surely reveals the suspects shortly leaving the shop, with certainly one of them turning again and pointing his weapon on the canine earlier than the video ends.
Pult was pronounced lifeless on the scene whereas Poole, who makes use of a wheelchair, was transported to an area trauma heart. Poole, 45 on the time, survived however, for a time, continued to obtain medical therapy for his wounds.
The Summerises have been taken into custody in Vallejo on July 12, 2017. Brazeal was arrested July 16 on the Imperial County state jail, the place he’s at present serving a sentence for a Yolo County theft.
Boyle beforehand stated the demise penalty should still apply within the case, regardless that Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2019 issued an govt order suspending capital punishment in California.
