MARTINEZ — In the conclusion of Contra Costa’s first case involving a policeman who was prosecuted for an on-duty shooting, ex-sheriff’s Dep. Andrew Hall was sentenced to six years in prison Friday for fatally shooting a mentally ill man during a 2018 slow speed police chase.
Hall was convicted last year of assault with a firearm and a gun enhancement in 33-year-old Laudemer Arboleda’s shooting death, but jurors couldn’t reach a verdict on a more serious manslaughter count. He was cleared of wrongdoing by a sheriff’s internal probe and returned to duty. In March 2021, he shot and killed a second man, 32-year-old Tyrell Wilson, when Wilson pulled a knife and took a step toward Hall during a jaywalking stop.
With his conviction, Hall became the first law enforcement officer in Contra Costa County’s to be successfully prosecuted for an on-duty killing. He now joins a small but growing number of officers nationwide who have been sentenced to prison for killing someone.
Hall faced a wide range of possible sentences — anywhere from probation or house arrest to 17 years in state prison. His defense team has said they will appeal his case and expect him to be cleared.
Before handing down the sentence, Superior Court Judge Terri Mockler went through the evidence at trial. She said Hall turned Arboleda’s car in an “unguided missile” and acted contrary to his training in dealing with chases. She said he’d put colleagues and civilians in danger that day.
“The people of Contra Costa put their trust in Deputy Hall to protect them, and he violated it on this occasion,” Mockler said. She described Arboleda as a “particularly vulnerable” victim and added, “He did not deserve to die for evading a police officer.”
Mockler added she has “a lot of empathy” for Hall and doesn’t think he’s a bad person. She noted his “very unstable chaotic childhood” and commended that he “raised himself up by his bootstraps to become something better.”
“However, on that day…he made extremely bad choices,” Mockler said.
Moments earlier, at Friday’s sentencing, Arboleda’s sister, Jennifer Leong, said the last three years have been “hell” for the family and asked for the maximum sentence.
“We cannot even start to comprehend the pain, the suffering, the anguish, the shock of those nine bullets coming into my brother’s body and one fatal bullet coming into his heart,” Leong said. “We know he was scared, he was going through a mental heath crisis.”
Leong cried as she recounted how, while waiting for the justice system to act, she learned that Hall killed Wilson. She said it was like her brother had been “murdered all over again.”
“I couldn’t believe our justice system let this happen,” Leong said. “The shock, the grief, the devastation, it happened all over again, if not a million times worse.”
When prosecutors charged Hall in April 2021, it was largely based on video evidence readily available to authorities since 2018. DA Diana Becton blamed the delay on a backlog of police-involved death investigations she conducted as part of a widespread project that retroactively looked into police shootings.
Outside her office, Becton read a brief statement calling the sentence just.
“No sentence imposed upon this matter will bring Mr. Arboleda back to his family,” Becton said. “The sentence imposed today is proportionate to the egregious shooting committed by a law enforcement officer who took the life of one man and in doing so endangered the lives of fellow officers and citizens.
In court, Arboleda’s mother, Jeannie Atienza, said her son was not a criminal but someone suffering a mental health crisis and joined in calls for the maximum sentence.
“Andrew Hall destroyed the life of my son. He doesn’t value the dignity of human life at all,” Atienza said. “Andrew Hall is not a decent person, he’s a murderer and a serial killer.”
A close friend of Hall, who identified herself as Erica, spoke up to defend him after describing herself as a “progressive liberal” who believes in police reform. She described him as a good friend who was always there for people in need and “not the scapegoat” prosecutors were painting him as.
“He is a good man in a very bad situation,” she said.
Randy Arboleda, Laudemer Arboleda’s brother, also asked for the maximum but made it clear the request was not out of malice.
“I don’t hate Mr. Hall or have any ill will toward him,” Arboleda said. “If Jesus can forgive the people who killed him, I can forgive too.”
Hall shot and killed Arboleda during a slow speed police chase that began after Arboleda ignored deputies’ attempts to pull him over. The deputies were responding to a caller who thought it was suspicious Arboleda was wandering around a neighborhood that it turned out he used to live in. Arboleda suffered from a mental illness, his family has publicly stated.
Police body and dash cameras — the main evidence used to convict Hall — show him running around the front of his patrol car, gun drawn, and coming face to face with Arboleda’s sedan. As Arboleda continues forward at a slow speed, Hall fires into the car while backing away. Arboleda suffered nine gunshot wounds.
Prosecution and defense experts agreed during trial that Arboleda was traveling at six miles per hour when he was shot.
During trial, Hall’s attorneys argued he fired in self-defense, to avoid being run over. Prosecutors described Hall as unnecessarily aggressive. A sheriff’s sergeant who joined the pursuit testified he was worried about potentially being in Hall’s line of fire.
Mockler lambasted both the probation report, which called for leniency, as well as a defense sentencing memorandum that asked for a probation term. She said the defense presented a “very novel” interpretation of physical evidence, and refused to let Hall’s attorney respond. She said it was clear the defense arguments failed to sway the jury.
“The jury rejected the self-defense theory,” she said. “They could not have convicted Mr. Hall of anything if they believed he was acting in self-defense.”
Shawn Welch, president of the Contra Costa County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, lambasted the decision — arguing that Hall should have instead received probation.
“Hall, obviously within those few seconds, felt in danger of his life. That’s why he shot,” said Welch, adding of the sentence: “I just don’t think it’s right.”
Cheers echoed in the courthouse hallway at word of the judge’s sentence, and several supporters of Arboleda’s family walked out of the courthouse singing “Victory at last.” Outside the courthouse, family of four young men killed by police in Contra Costa gathered: Wilson, Tyrell, Miles Hall — shot and killed by Walnut Creek police — and Angelo Quinto, who died after Antioch officers restrained him in December 2020.
John Burris, a prominent Bay Area civil rights attorney, stood before news cameras and recalled his experiences of pursuing police violence cases over the past 30 years, adding that neither the LAPD officers who beat Rodney King nor the BART officer who killed Oscar Grant received as much time as Hall. The sentence a sign of the changing times, he said.
Burris added the sheriff’s office “has blood on its hands” for allowing Hall to return to work and praised Becton for prosecuting the case “despite opposition within her own office.”
Arboleda’s family settled a federal lawsuit with the sheriff’s office for $4.9 million.
Wilson’s father, Marvin Wilson, hailed Hall’s sentence as a larger indictment on police officers’ handling of people suffering from mental illness — demanding officers “don’t corner them, don’t kill them.” Other members of Wilson’s family, including his uncle, Fred Warfield, voiced disappointment that Hall didn’t receive even more years in prison.
Still, they voiced resolve to see Hall prosecuted for his son’s death.
“He still has to answer for another killing,” Wilson said. “This is going to haunt us for the rest of our lives.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com