MARTINEZ — After an eighteen-year saga that saw one defendant win his appeal while the other evaded capture for 15 years, a murder case over a 2004 Pleasant Hill fatal shooting has finally reached its end.
Last month, Tyson Moorehead and Kenneth York accepted plea deals and second degree murder convictions in the killing of Michael “Merlin” Fidler. In June, Moorehead will receive 18 years to life and York will receive 16 years to life, giving York a slightly earlier opportunity for parole.
Despite the two-year differential, York will receive significantly more credit for time served. He was arrested four years after the homicide, in Reno, and has spent the last 14 years in jail or prison. Moorehead, meanwhile, eluded capture until 2019, when police used a cunning ruse that involved undercover officers posing as violent criminals to menace Moorehead’s relatives.
Deputy district attorney Kevin Bell said that as part of the plea deal, Moorehead admitted that he was the one who killed Filder in what authorities described as an attempted marijuana robbery at a Pleasant Hill apartment.
According to authorities, York and Moorehead had plotted to rob Fidler because of his reputation for having a large amount of marijuana at his Golf Club Road apartment. On the night of May 10, 2004, they allegedly entered the apartment, possibly under the guise of wanting to purchase marijuana.
Fidler’s roommate later told police that the men pulled guns, a fight broke out, and he ran into Fidler’s bedroom and armed himself with a shotgun in anticipation of the robbers storming in. Instead, he heard gunfire outside the door and found Fidler in the living room, suffering from a fatal gunshot wound.
A witness named Junior Perez testified for the prosecution at York’s 2009 trial, which resulted in a murder conviction. But in 2018, the Ninth Circuit ruled that York’s attorney, Michael Cardoza, had erred when he failed to bring up records of Perez’s cellphone that showed no evidence of an early-morning call. The court found that the records, had they been introduced, could reasonably have swayed the jury in the other direction.
York’s successful appeal reinvigorated the search for Moorehead, when authorities tasked with preparing for York’s second trial decided to make an attempt at tracking down Moorehead and finally bringing him in.
The plan involved sending two undercover officers to Moorehead’s son’s workplace, posing as henchmen working on York’s behalf. The “henchmen” gave Moorehead’s son a note warning him not to cooperate against York in court, or else. At the same time, Pleasant Hill police approached members of Moorehead’s family to warn them of purportedly credible information they’d received that indicated York was gunning for Moorehead.
But it was all fake, a ruse designed to force Moorehead out into the open. It worked: Moorehead’s family called him, and police had already secured warrants to track their phones. From there, authorities used GPS to locate Moorehead and arrested him at a Stockton home, after he briefly attempted to run away.
The plea deal with York and Moorehead was reached as both defendants were scheduled to go on trial, court records show. Their sentencing has been set for June 17.
Source: www.mercurynews.com