OAKLAND, Calif. -- A Union City gang member was found guilty Wednesday of trying to kill an undercover Fremont police officer during a botched arrest in East Oakland last year that resulted in the near-death of the officer.
Rejecting defense arguments that Andrew Barrientos had no idea that Officer Todd Young, who was wearing plain clothes, was a police officer, the jury answered the only question that remained in the case by declaring that the 21-year-old knew or should have known that he was being chased by law enforcement.
Barrientos' attorney, Barbara Thomas, had conceded during her closing arguments that Barrientos was guilty of most of the charges against him but pleaded with the jury not to find her client guilty of trying to kill a police officer.
In making her argument, Thomas attempted to portray Young as a "cowboy" who brazenly attempted to arrest Barrientos in East Oakland while ignoring police procedure and a written plan that had been devised beforehand to capture a violent wanted man.
But the jury of eight men and four women rejected that argument. They found Barrientos guilty of the most serious charges levied against him. The jury also found him guilty of two other felonies related to an argument he had with his girlfriend a month earlier when he pulled a gun on her and threatened to kill her.
Barrientos now faces at least 50 years to life in prison when he is sentenced next month.
Young declined to comment
on the verdict as he was rushed out of the courtroom, surrounded by a half-dozen uniformed Fremont police officers. But Fremont police Detective Bill Veteran said Young is grateful for the verdict and that the case has concluded.
"He is glad to get past this," Veteran said. "He is grateful."
While the jury found Barrientos guilty of all charges filed against him, the panel did not agree with a prosecutor that the shooting of Young and the various felonies that Barrientos committed during his escape from the scene were done in the name of the Union City gang Barrientos belongs to.
Instead, the jury found that the only actions Barrientos did in relation to the gang were carrying a concealed weapon and carrying a loaded firearm in a city.
In terms of sentencing, however, the rejection of those "gang clauses" will mean little since Barrientos most likely will be sentenced to more than 50 years in prison.
The jury took about four days to find Barrientos guilty on the 10 felony charges against him, including carjacking, attempted carjacking, two counts of shooting into an occupied vehicle, assault with a firearm and making criminal threats.
Barrientos' defense was hamstrung by evidence that showed Young clearly identified himself as a police officer at the scene and that Barrientos knew minutes after the shooting that he had shot an officer.
That evidence included an audio recording of the shooting that captured the sounds of Young yelling, "Police, police" before a volley of gunfire is heard. It also included an interview Barrientos' mother gave to police in which she said her son called her nine minutes after the shooting and said, "Mom, I shot a cop."
Barrientos will be sentenced Dec 16.
Copyright 2011 - The Oakland Tribune, Calif.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
