A 52-year-old Martinez man accused of an April 2022 killing in Fairfield and a second killing in December in Suisun City will return for setting proceedings in May in Solano County Superior Court.
Richard Raymond Klein, who appeared Tuesday in Department 15, heard Judge Robert Bowers schedule a new trial-setting date for the first fatal shooting at 9 a.m. May 9 and a preliminary hearing setting for the second at the same time in the Justice Building in Vallejo.
The changes in the cases’ schedulings come several months after Klein appeared in Department 11 in Fairfield, where Judge William J. Pendergast assigned the arraignment for the second killing to Department 15 and to Bowers.
As previously reported, Pendergast, at the Jan. 17 proceeding, also reinstated no bail for Klein, who was released from custody Dec. 14 for the first killing, on bail reduced to $400,000, with a pre-trial services contract and a GPS ankle monitor. However, he was picked up days later in Rosarito, Mexico, by U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officers and returned to Solano County Jail in Fairfield, where he remains. He is accused of the April 21 fatal shooting of Anthony Fuimaono, 56. Klein also faces the charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm in that case.
Police records show that around 11:30 p.m., a group had gathered outside a home in the 300 block of Manzanita Avenue.
An investigation revealed that an argument occurred between the two men and guns were drawn, police said. Fuimaono was shot during the chaos.
An unidentified woman was driving Fuimaono to the hospital when officers arrived on the scene to investigate reports of the shooting, officials said. They saw her vehicle leaving and pulled her over. The wounded Fuimaono was found and later transported to a local hospital, where he died in the early hours of April 22.
On May 5, Klein appeared in Department 11 in Fairfield for an arraignment on the charges. Solano County District Attorney’s Office filed its criminal complaint on May 5.
If convicted at trial for the April killing, Klein, who was convicted of a felony in 2006 in Contra Costa County, faces 25 years to life for the murder and likely more time for using a firearm and being a previously convicted felon.
For the second case, Vallejo-based criminal defense attorney Dustin M. Gordon, to whom Pendergast assigned the case, said during the Jan. 17 proceeding that he needed more details about the criminal complaint filed in the new case and also asked the judge to vacate Klein’s Feb. 25 jury trial for the first alleged killing, but Pendergast told Gordon to take up the matter with Bowers, who later vacated the trial date.
Klein is alleged to have fatally shot Matthew Muller, 37, on Dec. 15 in Suisun City.
Also, in the second case, Klein was held on a felony warrant out of Contra Costa County on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession of narcotics for sale, possession of a controlled substance while armed, and possession of a controlled substance for sale.
He remains in Solano County Jail without bail for the murder allegation and $450,000 in bail on the charges listed in the warrant.
Investigators, working closely with the Solano County District Attorney’s Office and the Major Crimes Task Force, were able to identify Klein as the suspect and locate him. He was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals and Mexican authorities some days after Dec. 15 in Rosarito.
Also, as previously reported, during the December proceedings for Klein’s release, the Solano County District Attorney’s Office objected to the reduction in bail, citing the risk to public safety, risk to safety of the victim’s family, seriousness of the charge, Klein’s criminal history, his prior prison commitments, and that Klein was previously a validated member of the Nazi Low Riders, a white supremacist prison and criminal street gang with origins in the California Youth Authority.
If convicted at trial for the December death of Muller, Klein faces another 25-years-to-life sentence and likely more time for using a firearm and being a previously convicted felon.
Source: www.mercurynews.com