Nearly 5 years after fatal Pomona nightclub shooting, ex-LAPD officer who pulled trigger goes on trial

Nearly 5 years after fatal Pomona nightclub shooting, ex-LAPD officer who pulled trigger goes on trial

by Josh Cain

The rookie Los Angeles Police Department officer who shot a man to death in downtown Pomona nearly five years ago fired his gun in self defense, his attorney said Monday, despite prosecutors saying they have footage of the officer repeatedly shoving the victim moments before the shooting.

Monday was the first day of the long-awaited trial of Henry Solis, the 32-year-old former U.S. Marine who joined LAPD just four months before he shot Salome Rodriguez Jr. near a strip of nightclubs at Thomas and 3rd streets early on March 13, 2015.

In her opening statement, Deputy District Attorney Martha Carillo said the 23-year-old Rodriguez, of Ontario, was having a good time that night with friends at the Carnaval night club before he got involved in the fatal encounter with Solis.

She told jurors she’ll show them the security camera footage, which captured only part of the fight between Solis and Rodriguez, not the shooting itself.

Carillo said jurors would be able to see Solis “pushing, pushing, assaulting Mr. Rodriguez.”

“Rodriguez was walking away from the defendant,” Carillo said. “He was trying to get away.”

Solis’ attorney said his client feared for his life at the hands of Rodriguez, who at 6-foot-3 was significantly larger than then 5-foot-11 Solis.

“That big man could have stomped him to death,” said Bradley Brunon, the defense attorney.

Brunon said the fight began when Rodriguez — who left Carnaval with his friends at around 2 a.m., then went to get pizza before he separated from the group to leave with another man in a car — returned to go to the Vive Lounge around the corner. His friend stayed in the car, passed out.

At Vive, Brunon said, Rodriguez followed Solis into a bathroom stall, then assaulted and robbed him. Both ended up outside the club, where Solis attempted to arrest Rodriguez.

During the fight that followed, Solis tried to convince Rodriguez he was under arrest, Brunon said. As the men tussled, they moved down the street and in view of the security camera.

In their opening statements, both prosecutors and the defense dueled over what happened next.

Carillo said an expert witness will testify that Rodriguez was the one on the ground when he was shot.

A medical examiner from the Los Angeles County coroner’s office testified in 2015 that Rodriguez was shot four times — once in the left side of his neck, once in the abdomen, and twice in his left thigh.

One of the shots to his thigh was fatal, severing arteries in his leg. Showing the jurors a photo of Rodriguez’s body, his left thigh bloody, Carillo said the man attempted to crawl away from Solis, then ran to his friend’s car. His friend was still unconscious.

Brunon, however, said Solis was the one on the ground. He said the fatal shot to his thigh could only have come from a prone Solis.

Prosectors did not address the alleged robbery of Solis and refused comment outside the courtroom. But witnesses Carillo called Monday testified that Rodriguez was not belligerent that night.

She showed photos of Rodriguez with a smile on his face, posing inside the club with a friend, a go go dancer he was there to visit.

Carillo asked one witness — 30-year-old Karen Sanchez, who was with Rodriguez that night at the club — whether Rodriguez was acting violently that night. Sanchez said she just remembered dancing with him and other friends in a group at the club.

“He was having a good time,” she said.

With his hands clasped, the clean-shaven Solis — dressed in a dark grey suit and pants, dark loafers and white socks — sat silently throughout the proceedings.

A roommate of Solis testified in 2015 preliminary hearing that he called her the night of the shooting, drunk and claiming he “killed somebody.” She said Solis also told after that night she’d never see him again.

Solis previously patrolled the San Fernando Valley as an officer in LAPD’s Devonshire Division. He fled to Mexico after the fatal encounter, with the help of his father who drove him to El Paso and walked with him across the border. An intense manhunt followed, and the LAPD fired Solis.

Mexican authorities arrested Solis about two months later and deported him back to the United States, where he was charged with one count each of murder and assault with a firearm.

Brunon acknowledged his client panicked after the shooting, which led him to flee the country. But he said Solis running does not mean he was guilty.

“Flight does not make a lawful act unlawful,” he said.

For about four years, Solis’ attorneys delayed bringing the case to trial. Solis fired the public defender initially assigned to him. He fired a second pair of attorneys, and at one point represented himself in some hearings. He later settled on Brunon.

At least a dozen members of Rodriguez’s family, including his mother, grandmother, uncle and several cousins, packed the back row of the courtroom on Monday.

Some said they were relieved to finally see the trial begin. But they fretted that after so many years, the evidence against Solis would be less convincing to the jury.

“It’s very frustrating that it took this long,” said Jose Vidrio, Rodriguez’s uncle. “We’ve been waiting this long for us to finally get justice.”

The amount of time that’s passed since the incident was apparent in Sanchez’s testimony. Both Brunon and Carillo attempted to get Sanchez to clarify when she, Rodriguez and their friends left the Carnaval night club.

In earlier testimony, Sanchez said she never saw Rodriguez before their other friend, the go go dancer, ended her shift around 1 a.m. On Monday, she said she did see him before that moment. Brunon quizzed her on the discrepancy.

“That was five years ago,” a frustrated Sanchez said.

If convicted, Solis faces life in prison.

City News Service contributed to this story.

All credit goes to Josh Cain
Originally published on https://www.dailynews.com