LAKEPORT — The ex-girlfriend of the former co-defendant, her cousin and two law enforcement officials were among the six witnesses to take the stand Wednesday in the toddler-killing trial.
Paul William Braden, 22, and Orlando Joseph Lopez Jr., 24, pleaded not guilty to 15 felonies (including one murder count and five counts of attempted murder) and denied more than 30 special allegations against them.
Authorities allege the two Clearlake Oaks men fired shotguns at a group of people gathered outside a Clearlake home the night of June 18, killing Skyler Rapp, 4, and injuring five others.
Braden and Lopez are standing trial in the same courtroom but have different attorneys and separate juries.
Leighann Painchaud, the ex-girlfriend of Kevin Ray Stone, was the second witness to testify Wednesday at the Lake County Courthouse.
Stone, the former co-defendant in the murder case who reached a plea agreement last fall, is expected to testify Thursday as a prosecution witness.
Painchaud testified she used the maroon vehicle she borrowed from her cousin to drive Stone around after 9:30 p.m. on June 18. She said they eventually picked up two men from outside a home in “The Avenues” area of Clearlake.
Painchaud pointed out both defendants as the men she gave a ride to that night.
She said she drove the three men back to her apartment and asked her cousin, who lived in the same complex, if Stone could borrow the car for a while longer.
Painchaud testified she then went into her apartment and found Stone inside with a pointy object in his sweatshirt. She said she believed it was a rifle.
Painchaud, who admitted using methamphetamine that night, said she gave Stone the car key and went out to a bar. She testified she did not see any of the men get back in the vehicle.
Under cross-examination from Lopez”s lawyer, Stephen Carter, Painchaud said she never saw either defendant with a firearm that night.
Painchaud”s cousin, Crystal, testified Wednesday.
Crystal Painchaud confirmed lending her Nissan minivan to her cousin and then allowing Stone to borrow the key.
She testified that after Stone didn”t return with the vehicle, she and a friend drove around that night searching for it and soon located it parked in some bushes.
The prosecution alleges the vehicle crashed into roadside brush as the three men fled the shooting scene.
Crystal Painchaud testified she looked through the car and found an apparent bullet, which she said she picked up but then put back where she saw it.
Tyreshia Celestin-Willis, the friend who helped look for the minivan, said it was “just a fluke” that they found the vehicle. She also testified Wednesday.
Celestin-Willis said they left the minivan where it was, drove back to Crystal Painchaud”s apartment and called the police.
Clearlake Police Department (CPD) Officer Andrew Jones testified Wednesday he interviewed Crystal Painchaud and said she indicated at the time that she allowed Stone to use the minivan some time between 11 and 11:30 p.m. on June 18.
Jones also said he was dispatched to the shooting scene at 10:59 p.m. on June 18 and was the first officer to arrive.
He described the situation as “very chaotic” with “a lot of yelling and screaming.” He said he observed a boy “motionless” outside the home and contacted five other shooting victims.
Victoria Estrella, a CPD evidence technician, also testified Wednesday and talked about being present when Rapp”s clothes were removed from his body at the hospital. A photograph of the deceased toddler wearing those clothes was shown to the jurors.
Estrella said she watched Rapp”s autopsy a couple days later and saw the pathologist remove six metal pellets from the body.
Robert Bradley, also known as “Boxer,” was the other witness called to the stand Wednesday.
Bradley testified he was briefly at the house neighboring the shooting scene at about dusk on June 18.
He said that while he was there, the aunt of Ross Sparks (the boyfriend of Rapp”s mother) approached him and handed him a phone.
Bradley testified he spoke briefly with Lopez, who was on the other line. He said he told Lopez “not to bring no problems.”
Six witnesses marked a new single-day high for the trial. Testimony began Feb. 29, but the proceedings have met with a number of delays. Lake County trial days are typically Wednesday through Friday.
The trial is set to reconvene Thursday at 9 a.m. in Department 1.
