Photo, above: Barely two hours into the first day of trial for accused cop killer Luis Bracamontes, the proceedings devolved Tuesday, January 16, 2018, into a spectacle of the defendant threatening to kill more people, giggling as a prosecutor described his 2014 crime spree and his own lawyers once again questioning his sanity. NOTE: Contains graphic and disturbing language (Sacramento Bee)
Irrefutable evidence that we need more and better border security!
Deported twice, Luis Bracamontes returned to the United States a third time, killing two police officers near Sacramento, California, shooting a motorist in the head to steal his car, and wounding another police officer.
Thus far, his trial has been little more than a circus, Bracamontes playing tough guy copkiller, smiling, and declaring that he will kill more cops when he escapes.
“I don’t fucking regret that shit,” Bracamontes declared while grinning broadly. “Only thing that I fucking regret is that I fucking just killed two. I wish I fucking killed more of those motherfuckers.
I will break out soon, and I will kill more. Whoever fucking gets in front of me, just like that. There’s no need for a fucking trial.”
From The Sacramento Bee
There’s never been much dispute over whether Luis Bracamontes shot and killed two Sacramento-area deputies in October 2014.
He has repeatedly admitted to it in court hearings, and at the start of his trial Tuesday his own lawyer essentially convicted the illegal immigrant of killing Sacramento sheriff’s Deputy Danny Oliver and Placer sheriff’s Deputy Michael Davis Jr. in a daylong spree of violence that started in a Motel 6 parking lot near Arden Fair Mall.
“Let me be clear and up front,” public defender Jeffrey Barbour told the jury hearing his case. “Mr. Bracamontes is responsible for the death of Deputy Danny Oliver and Detective Michael Davis.
“He shot them both.”
The statement came during an extraordinary opening day during which the proceedings devolved into a spectacle of the defendant threatening to kill more people, giggling as a prosecutor described his crime spree and his own lawyers once again questioning his sanity.
“I wish I had killed more of the mother——-,” he boasted to the jury as prosecutor Rod Norgaard described the outbreak of violence.
Smiling broadly, Bracamontes added, “I will break out soon and I will kill more, kill whoever gets in front of me … There’s no need for a f—— trial.”
That outburst led to Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White briefly removing the jury, then warning Bracamontes.
“You will not disrupt this trial, you will not speak out,” White told him. “If you do, you will be removed from the courtroom.”
Barbour, who along with partner Norm Dawson has questioned Bracamontes’ sanity, then asked the judge to reconsider his finding that Bracamontes is mentally competent to stand trial.
“Your motion is denied,” White told Barbour. He then had the jury come back in and instructed them not to pay any attention to what had happened. All of them indicated they could do so, and Norgaard concluded his opening statement just before noon.
Barbour and Dawson then renewed their efforts, asking the judge outside the presence of the jury if they could enter a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.
“We believe Mr. Bracamontes’ outbursts, his laughter, are a function of his mental illness,” Barbour said.
But the judge was having none of it, noting that the issue already had been litigated in previous hearings and that if Bracamontes chooses not to help his lawyers that’s up to him. “He is not incompetent to stand trial,” White declared.
The jury returned after a lunch break and, after Barbour conceded his client killed both deputies, he urged the jurors to listen to evidence presented that may be of use in the penalty phase, when they will have to choose between the death penalty or life in prison if he is convicted.
Bracamontes, 37, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, is on trial along with his wife, Janelle Monroy, 41. She faces a possible sentence of life in prison.
Part of the evidence defense attorneys hope will spare Bracamontes from the death penalty is the fact that after his arrest a blood test found an “excessively high” amount of methamphetamine in his system that may have made him paranoid and agitated, and that he wrote a suicide note in the house where he holed up before surrendering to authorities.
“Forgive me, God,” the note read. “Please take me with you. I love you, Janelle.”
Prosecutors say the suicide note was written after Bracamontes turned on the burners of the home’s gas stove and tried to have it ignite to kill him and any officers who rushed in. Instead, Bracamontes crawled out of the house and surrendered meekly.
