VISTA — Oceanside gang member Meki Gaono was found guiltyMonday of first-degree murder in the 2006 ambush of Oceansidepolice Officer Dan Bessant.
Bessant, 25, was assisting a fellow officer during an unrelatedtraffic stop in a gang-plagued neighborhood when he was felled bysniper fire on Dec. 20, 2006.
Prosecutors had argued that Gaono and two fellow teenage gang drank beer and watched the police activity for about 15minutes and then opened fire to make themselves and their gang looktough on the streets.
The jury, which deliberated for about 10 hours since getting thecase last week, also found Gaono guilty of assault with a deadlyweapon for shooting at another officer with Bessant at thetime.
The cleared Gaono on a second charge of assault with adeadly weapon of shooting at a woman who was standing next topolice when the bullets started flying.
Several jurors, approached as they left the courthouse, declinedto discuss their verdict.
Barring a successful appeal, Gaono probably will spend the restof his life in prison without the possibility of parole because ofthe jury’s finding that he knowingly killed a police officer.
Sentencing is scheduled for May 19.
Gaono, now 20, displayed no visible reaction as he listened tothe verdict. Behind him, in the packed courtroom, the word “guilty”elicited a loud cry from one of Gaono’s 20 or so ers.
Meki Gaono Sr., the defendant’s 77-year-old grandfather, tearedup and stared at the floor.
Bessant’s father, Steve Bessant, gripped his wife’s hand, closedhis eyes and took a deep breath as the verdicts were read.
“There’s no sense of joy,” he later said of the verdict. “It’s agood thing, it’s the right thing, but it’s nothing to be joyfulabout.”
A cruel twist in the case: The elder Bessant knew Gaono beforethe killing, had been an assistant principal and later a principalat two Oceanside high schools where Gaono was a student.
And during that time, Steve Bessant worked with Gaono’sgrandfather to veer the teenager back to the straight and narrow.Many of Gaono’s family and neighbors have gang ties,authorities said.
“I have such great respect for his grandfather, and I know hisgrandfather is crushed by this,” Steve Bessant said. “But for Meki,he had an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other. And helistened to the wrong shoulder.”
Meki Gaono Sr. is the younger Gaono’s biological grandfather,but his legal father since he adopted him as a very young child.The elder Gaono said the younger Gaono had had hopes of ing theMarine Corps after his high school graduation.
But that was before the sniper attack on the police officer.Gaono has been in jail since shortly after the shooting.
As Gaono was led from the courtroom after the verdict, he lookedover, expressionless, at his family. Moments later, several Gaonofamily gathered in the hallway outside the court, formed acircle, held hands and prayed.
Oceanside police Chief Frank McCoy said the case was a tragedyfor all.
“Nobody won here,” he said. “Three families were devastated –the Bessant family, the Gaono family and the police family.”
Third suspect still under scrutiny
Gaono, an Oceanside native, is the second of the three accusedtriggermen to be convicted. In January, Penifoti “P.J.” Taeotui, 16at the time of the killing, was sentenced to life in prison withoutparole for standing alongside Gaono and firing a .22-caliberrevolver.
Superior Court Judge Runston Maino, who presided over the case,has the discretion to lighten the sentence, and perhaps give Gaonoa chance for parole. But that appears unlikely. Maino already haschosen not to lighten Taeotui’s sentence.
Authorities suspect a third documented gang member, Jose Compre,fired at least one bullet at Bessant from a 9 mm handgun. But thecase was weak and charges against Compre, 16 at the time of thekilling, were dropped.
On Monday, prosecutor Tom Manning said “the investigation isongoing” — and Compre remains the only other suspect as the thirdgunman. Manning said Compre is currently in custody for a probationviolation in an unrelated case.
Both Gaono and Taeotui were tried as adults. But both werejuveniles — Gaono was just weeks shy of his 18th birthday at thetime of the shooting of Bessant — and thus state law preventedprosecutors from seeking execution.
Bessant is the second Oceanside policeman shot to death since2003. Adrian George Camacho, convicted of killing Officer TonyZeppetella, now sits on California’s death row.
Bessant was 25, married and the father of a 2-month-old boy whenGaono’s bullet pierced his heart not long after 6:33 p.m. on a coldDecember night. Seconds later, he sat slumped against a police car,his life slipping away as sniper fire pinned down he and hiscolleague.
The officer had been helping out at a traffic stop in a roughnortheast Oceanside neighborhood for 13 minutes when shots beganflying at Bessant, Officer Karina Pina and Jacqueline Castenada, awoman who was with Pina to learn more about police work.
Although a number of shots were fired, the only bullet that hitanyone was the fatal shot from Gaono’s rifle.
‘I’m just relieved’
The most damning evidence against Gaono may have been hisission to police that he had been the triggerman.
DNA evidence tied him to beer cans at the scene, and hisfingerprints were on the rifle, but no witnesses put Gaono at thescene with a gun in his hand at the moment of the shooting.
Gaono’s attorney told the jury the confession was false, theproduct of an overnight interrogation of an unsophisticated teendenied access to his family or the ability to leave police custodyprior to his arrest.
Police found two of the guns used in the shooting at Gaono’shome.
Deputy Public Defender William Stone said Gaono was not therewhen the shots were fired, but hid the guns for friends and decidedto take the rap, trapping himself in a false confession before heknew Bessant was dead.
But prosecutor Manning repeatedly told the jury the veracity ofthe confession could be found in the details. Gaono, for example,used words such as “shaking” and “scared,” and described the exactspot Bessant was standing when he was shot — something, Manningsaid, could only be known to the shooter while peering through therifle’s sighting scope.
Micheal Brown, one of the detectives to whom Gaono confessed arole in the shooting, was in the courtroom during the verdict.Afterward, as he waited for an elevator, Brown leaned against awall and appeared to fight tears.
“I’m just relieved,” Brown said. “That’s all I have to say.”
staff writer Teri Figueroa at (760) 740-5442 or[email protected].
