LAKEPORT, Calif. – Both the prosecution and defense rested their cases on Wednesday in the trial of a Lakeport man accused of killing his neighbor based on the incorrect belief that the man was a child molester, with the defendant in the case taking the stand as the trial’s final witness.
Ivan Garcia Oliver, 34, is accused of stabbing 67-year-old Michael Dodele more than 65 times at his trailer at Western Hills Mobile Home Park in Lakeport on Nov. 20, 2007.
The prosecution alleges that Oliver believed, mistakenly, that Dodele was a child molester after seeing him on the Megan's Law sex offender registration Web site. However, Dodele actually had rape and attempted rape convictions, with his victims being adult women.
The defense has asserted that Oliver killed Dodele in self-defense, which is what Oliver maintained happened during his Wednesday testimony, in which he recounted asking Dodele if he had touched his young son.
Oliver said he stabbed Dodele dozens of times in self defense. “My eyes were closed, I didn’t stop until I realized the struggle was over and he was already dead.”
Oliver portrayed himself as a young father fearing for his son’s safety, who found himself in a life or death struggle. But in the face of the prosecution’s questioning he became increasingly defensive and argumentative.
As Chief Deputy District Attorney Richard Hinchcliff pursued an aggressive line of cross-examination on Oliver – questioning how the vast majority of this testimony had never been shared with law enforcement – Oliver stated, “I’m the victim here.”
“Are you?” Hinchcliff asked.
Before the jury was seated Wednesday morning Judge Arthur Mann held a half-hour-long hearing with Hinchcliff and defense attorney Stephen Carter on several issues, including whether the prosecution would be able to present to the jury information about a 2001 conviction Oliver had for an assault with a knife.
Carter had argued that the information could be harmful to his client. “The evidence shows substantially so far that Mr. Dodele died by my client's hands, by the use of a knife,” Carter said. However, he added that the circumstances of just how that happened are the subject of the trial.
Mann ruled that Hinchcliff could use the 2001 conviction to impeach Oliver's testimony should he take the stand.
He also ruled that Dodele's convictions for raping adult females – four of them between 1976 and 1987 – and two attempted rape convictions for cases from 1977 could be introduced to the jury, despite Hinchcliff's objections that Oliver didn't have that information at the time of the killing.
Carter argued, “In fairness to my client, the jury should know what kind of person Mr. Oliver dealt with that day,” and his propensity for violence.
On another matter, Mann determined that Hinchcliff could not introduce evidence about Oliver being found in possession of a shank in early December 2007.
At the same time, Mann determined Hinchcliff could present testimony about Oliver physically assaulting a fellow jail inmate who was a registered sex offender in December 2007, finding it was relevant to the issues of motive and intent.
Investigator testifies to interviewing child
Hinchcliff's first witness of the day was Deputy Mike Curran, a sheriff's office veteran who has investigated more than 1,000 child sex assault cases.
Curran was at the scene the day of Dodele's death, assisting with gathering evidence and recording the scene.
He confirmed that Dodele had no convictions for child molestation, with his rape and attempted rape victims being adult women.
Curran interviewed Oliver's then 4-year-old son. Oliver had told investigators that Dodele tried to harm his son, and Curran talked to the child to determine if something had actually occurred.
The child told Curran than an “old man” had touched his genitals, but Curran said the boy didn't identify who the man was and couldn't say when it happened. Curran also showed the child a photo lineup with a month-old picture of Dodele; the child didn't identify anyone in the lineup.
He said he developed no information that Dodele touched the little boy.
Hinchcliff's last witness was sheriff's Det. Dennis Keithly, who was a correctional officer in December 2007.
Keithly was transporting a group of jail inmates from the courthouse to the Lake County Jail when Oliver stepped out of line and lunged at another inmate who was a registered sex offender, slamming the man into the wall.
“I said, 'You really don't like those 290 guys, do you,'” Keithly recalled, with “290” signifying the penal code entry requiring sex offender registration.
Keithly said Oliver asked him if he had ever seen or heard anything that made him sick in his guts, adding that was how he felt about sex offenders.
“Those guys are wrong,” Keithly remembered Oliver saying.
Defense begins its case
Carter called Oliver to the stand Wednesday afternoon.
Oliver recalled moving to Lake County from San Diego a few months before the killing to live with his girlfriend Cathleen Ferran and their 4-year-old son in a duplex at the trailer park.
He said he did odd jobs around the park, and put out a flyer to do painting and odd jobs.
“I really liked moving into that place,” he said, with families and children making the park seem comfortable and safe.
However, he became very scared when he saw a strange car pull up to the park with a person inside beckoning to his son. When he approached the vehicle it sped off.
He reported the incident to park manager Lacey Kou, who sat down with him in her office and pulled up the Megan's Law Web site. Oliver said he didn't see the charging information about Dodele, and said it was Kou who told him – wrongly – that Dodele was a child molester.
Oliver said he and Kou agreed – at the suggestion of the park owner – that they would speak to park residents; she would approach those who spoke English and Oliver, who was bilingual, would meet with the Spanish speakers.
But Oliver said he soon became frustrated. “Nobody cared. Nobody gave a crap. They didn't want to hear what I had to tell them.”
He estimated it was about four days after he got the Megan's Law printout from Kou that Dodele was killed.
In the interim, “I was very upset, very brokenhearted. I felt alone.” Oliver said he didn't know what to do, had never felt such stress, and was having trouble sleeping, eating and concentrating.
It was a about a week before he found out about Dodele being a sex registrant that Oliver became frightened when he briefly lost track of his son at the park. The child came out of a common yard shared by Dodele and a family whose children were the little boy's playmates.
According to Oliver, his son told him that he had been playing with an old man who had touched his genitals. Oliver admitted never reporting the issue to law enforcement or even his girlfriend, saying he didn't know what to do and he had no proof.
He said he should have talked to Ferran because things could have turned out better. “I didn't seek the help that I should have sought. I'm sorry.”
Oliver also acknowledged asking Israel Bojorquez to come to his home the morning Dodele died to tell him he didn't want him around his son. Bojorquez has since transitioned to a transgender woman and testified on the first day of the trial to being assaulted by Oliver. Oliver said he and Bojorquez had argued and she tripped and fell on her way out of the home.
Later that morning, Oliver went to Dodele’s house to gather some painting equipment that he needed which had been used by Dodele to paint inside his trailer. He said he had no weapons on him when he went to Dodele’s.
Oliver said Dodele took him inside his trailer and showed him his painting work in his bedroom.
For several days beforehand, Oliver had testified to praying for guidance on what to do. While they were standing in Dodele’s’ bedroom, Oliver said he heard a voice in his head that said, “Ask him, ask him.”
So Oliver asked Dodele if he had attempted to fondle his young son. “He immediately turned into somebody else,” said Oliver, recounting Dodele cursing at him and whipping out a black knife that is among the key pieces of evidence in the trial.
He said Dodele had the knife in his right hand and pulled back to stab him overhand. Carter and Oliver did a limited reenactment so Oliver could illustrate his account.
Carter held the knife, in a plastic evidence tube, in his right hand as Oliver reached out with his right hand to grip Carter’s wrist. Some of the bailiffs and correctional officers in the room moved up toward the front of the courtroom while Oliver was near the knife.
According to Oliver, when he grabbed Dodele’s wrist, the knife went into the web of his right hand. He said he pulled the knife away and they began to struggle; he alleged that Dodele tried to get the knife away from him, telling him he would kill him when he did.
Oliver said the struggle happened very quickly. He used the black knife to stab at Dodele, telling the court that his eyes were closed during the stabbing. Oliver said he stopped when he realized Dodele was on the ground and dead.
He acknowledged trying to wash off his bleeding hand and attempting to clean his blood from Dodele’s residence. Oliver said he took Dodele’s cell phone to call 911 but got scared and didn’t.
It would be Ferran who called 911. “I can't believe my son's mother called the cops on me,” he said.
Oliver said he went to his home, changed clothes and was going to flee, but “chickened out” and stayed put. He said he threw both the black knife and a silver knife he had in his fishing kit out his bathroom window.
When sheriff’s deputies kicked down his door, Oliver said he was on the floor, feeling faint due to blood loss.
Prosecution questions credibility of account
When his turn came to question Oliver, Hinchcliff began by asking him if he was aware that the vast majority of the story he gave on the stand was never told to sheriff’s detectives.
Oliver said yes, because he didn’t trust them at the beginning of the case and he didn’t trust them now. He accused investigators of attempting to put words in his mouth throughout their interview sessions with him, trying to paint him as a cold-blooded killer.
At times as Hinchcliff questioned him, Oliver gave rambling answers that strayed off the topic. He became angry when, at one point, Hinchcliff misstated his son’s first name.
Hinchcliff asked Oliver why he tried to use bleach to remove his blood from a rug in Dodele’s home. “I just had killed a man. I never done that before nor had I ever planned to,” Oliver replied.
When Hinchcliff pressed Oliver on why he stabbed Dodele 65 times, Oliver replied, “That was beyond me. I do not have an answer for that.”
Recalling Oliver’s earlier statements about having his eyes closed during the stabbing, Hinchcliff asked if he had just gotten lucky and managed to hit Dodele in so many key places on his body.
“What do you think, I’m a ninja?” asked Oliver
“That’s what I’m wondering,” Hinchcliff replied.
Hinchcliff asked if Oliver went into a rage during the stabbing. Oliver said yes.
“This thing that happened wasn’t something that was intended,” said Oliver. “Yes, a man is dead because of me. I had his blood on my hands. The evidence was clearly shown to you. It wasn’t what I wanted.”
When Oliver left the stand Judge Mann had the court clerk read a prepared statement on Dodele’s prior convictions for rape and attempted rape.
The defense then rested, and Hinchcliff briefly recalled Deputy Corey Paulich, the case’s lead investigator, who said that during questioning Oliver had identified the black knife as his.
Carter questioned Oliver’s statement about the knife in the interview, which was not videotaped. He said the evidence wasn’t clear, and questioned what Paulich did to clarify it. Paulich said he was there to testify to the statement having been made, and that he wrote a report based on Oliver’s statements that was part of the case.
Judge Mann and the attorneys will meet at 10 a.m. Thursday to discuss jury instructions. The jury will then return at 9 a.m. Friday to hear closing arguments, receive the jury instructions and begin deliberations.
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