LAKEPORT — A shooting victim and his cousin testified Wednesday in the trial of two Clearlake Oaks men charged with pulling the trigger and killing a toddler last year.
Paul William Braden, 22, and Orlando Joseph Lopez Jr., 24, have pleaded not guilty to 15 felonies (including one murder count and five counts of attempted murder) and have denied more than 30 special allegations in connection with a June 18 shooting in Clearlake.
Authorities allege the two men fired shotguns at a group of people gathered late that night, killing Skyler Rapp, 4, and injuring five others.
Lopez and Braden are standing trial in the same courtroom but have different attorneys and separate juries.
Josh Gamble, a cousin of some shooting victims, testified first Wednesday at the Lake County Courthouse. He completed the testimony he began on April 5 — the last time the jurors heard evidence.
Gamble said he was present at the shooting but not injured.
He remembered seeing the silhouettes of two shooters, one near muzzle flashes at the top of the fence and the other leaning through an opening where boards were missing.
Gamble could not positively identify the gunmen. “I wasn”t really trying to look at their description while I was being shot at,” he said.
Gamble also talked about a fight after a graduation ceremony in Lower Lake roughly a week before the shooting.
The prosecution claims the incident — which reportedly involved Gamble and members of a group called the “Ave Boyz” — increased tensions leading up to June 18.
Gamble said Leonardo Lopez, the defendant”s younger brother, hit him with a pipe during the altercation.
He stated he did not see Lopez or Braden at the graduation.
Several “Ave Boyz” previously testified and said the defendants were not members of the group and indicated they didn”t consider Braden or Lopez as anything more than acquaintances.
Both defendants were at party with Leonardo Lopez and some of the “Ave Boyz” on June 18, according to witnesses.
The prosecution alleges Braden and Lopez left the party with shotguns later that night and drove with a third man to another part of Clearlake where the shooting occurred.
Ross Sparks was the second witness of the day. Sparks, who was reportedly wounded on June 18, referred to Rapp as his stepson.
The shooting took place outside the duplex apartment he lived at with Rapp”s mother.
Sparks said he recognized both defendants because of prior interactions and thought of them as his friends before mid-June last year.
He testified about learning of the graduation fight involving Gamble, his younger cousin, and “was pretty upset about that.”
Sparks stated he saw Lopez at his neighbor”s house a few days before June 18 and they spoke about the altercation. The defendant said he would talk with his brother about the incident, the witness said.
“He was totally cool. It was like we were friends still,” Sparks said of Lopez.
But things changed on June 18, according to Sparks, after he received a series of threatening text messages.
Before testimony started Wednesday morning, the parties conducted an hour-long evidentiary hearing outside the presence of the juries. Judge Doris L. Shockley ruled the prosecution could present certain evidence related to Sparks” cellphone.
In one text message, the sender was identified as Lopez, Sparks told the jurors in the afternoon.
Sparks said he replied to the phone number with text messages and phone calls, and spoke to Lopez at one point.
The witness said the defendant was trying to organize a place to fight with him and his family members.
“He was pretty mad because I wouldn”t meet him at the places he wanted,” Sparks said of Lopez.
Lake County District Attorney Don Anderson had just asked a series of questions to set the scene for Sparks” testimony about the shooting when the judge adjourned the trial for the day.
Neither Braden”s attorney, Doug Rhoades, nor Lopez”s lawyer, Stephen Carter, have started cross-examining Sparks.
The proceedings are set to reconvene today at 9 a.m.
Contact Jeremy Walsh at jwalsh@record-bee.com or call him at 263-5636, ext. 37. Follow trial coverage live on Twitter @JeremyDWalsh or by searching #BradenLopez.
