LAKEPORT — Both men convicted of killing a toddler and shooting five other people in Clearlake last year received more than three centuries in prison after a judge Thursday sentenced Paul William Braden to serve 312 years to life.
Judge Doris L. Shockley said during the afternoon hearing at the Lake County Courthouse that Braden was “cold and calculating and didn”t really care.”
Shockley sentenced Braden”s co-defendant, Orlando Joseph Lopez Jr., to serve 311 years to life on Tuesday. Braden received an additional year because of a prior prison term.
Braden, 22, and Lopez, 24, stood trial in the same courtroom but had different attorneys and separate juries.
Seated wearing a red- and white-striped jail uniform, Braden leaned back in his chair, staring forward or downward throughout most of the hearing.
Some survivors of the June 18, 2011 shooting along with their families and supporters sat in the courtroom, with a few wearing shirts memorializing Skyler Rapp, the 4-year-old killed that night.
“It”s a relief,” the toddler”s mother, Desiree Kirby, said after Braden”s sentencing. “Nothing will ever bring Skyler back but they”re going to spend the rest of their lives in prison. And I just hope one day they realize what they did and they feel some remorse.”
A panel of 12 Lake County jurors convicted Braden of first-degree murder and 14 other felonies and found dozens of special allegations to be true on June 20. Lopez”s jury convicted him of all counts five days earlier.
Braden, who denies any wrongdoing, spoke briefly to the court Thursday, proclaiming his innocence, blasting the credibility of key witnesses and questioning his defense.
“I didn”t put on a defense,” he said.
The sentence was handed down more than six months after testimony began in the dual-jury trial.
Lake County District Attorney Don Anderson, working his first trial as a prosecutor, presented evidence during the course of three months in an effort to show that Braden and Lopez snuck into a neighboring backyard and fired shotguns into the family”s party.
Anderson argued tensions rose between the defendants and some partygoers.
“It was as much as the court could possibly do or as much as we could possibly charge, which was justified in this case,” the DA said after Braden was sentenced.
All five living victims — Kirby, her boyfriend, his brother and two family friends — testified at trial and described their injuries to the juries.
In addition to murder, both men were convicted of five counts of attempted murder, six counts of assault with a firearm, two counts of mayhem and one count of shooting at an inhabited dwelling. A majority of the special allegations were associated with gun use.
Defense counsel Doug Rhoades filed a notice of appeal on Braden”s behalf Thursday.
The trial, which spanned more than five months counting jury selection, faced a slew of delays, including attorney and juror illnesses, court holidays and furloughs, and procedural issues. Trial days took place Wednesday through Friday.
