Shooter was ‘methodical’ when he killed man, boy at Morro Bay beach, woman testifies

Eyewitness testimony in the trial against the man accused of killing a man and 11-year-old child at Morro Strand State Beach continued Wednesday after a delay due to assigning a new judge, with witnesses painting a picture of what exactly happened that day more than 20 years ago.

Stephen Deflaun is alleged to have killed 37-year-old Stephen Wells and his 11-year-old nephew, Jerry Rios Jr., on July 8, 2001. Deflaun, now 63, was deemed competent to stand trial about 21 years after the alleged crime.

His attorney said voices in Deflaun’s head drove him to kill the man and his nephew — according to a 2004 court hearing, Deflaun was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia — but the prosecution said in opening statements that Deflaun’s actions were a “shocking, deliberate escalation” of an argument about a camping space.

San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Barry LaBarbera was presiding over the case but fell ill Tuesday. It is unclear when LaBarbera will be back on the bench, so the case was reassigned to San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Jacquelyn Duffy during a Tuesday court hearing.

State park employee recalls escape from active shooter

Court picked up Wednesday right where it left off Monday, with testimony from Heidi Hodak, who was a 20-year-old Cal Poly student working at the entrance kiosk at Morro Strand State Beach.

Hodak explained that after Wells finished his phone call reporting Deflaun’s alleged threat to his children to State Parks dispatch, she continued to help other customers. One man was using the phone at the kiosk while she helped two woman who were leaving the park when a man, now identified as Deflaun, came up to the kiosk.

When Deflaun arrived at the kiosk, a loud argument immediately erupted between him and Wells, while Hodak continued to help her customers.

Then, she said, she heard what she thought was fireworks. The man who was using the phone dropped it, and that’s what made her realize the noise wasn’t fireworks, but gunshots.

Hodak said she immediately dropped to the ground and waited for the shooting to stop. When it did, she said she waited about a minute, contemplating her next move.

“My fear of sitting and waiting was greater than my fear of trying to get up and exit,” Hodak testified.

So she crawled to the back door of the kiosk and slipped outside. She said she saw a lot of blood, and to her right, a body later identified as 11-year-old Jerry Rios Jr.

She came face to face with Deflaun and said she silently put her arms out to show him she wasn’t armed. According to a report she gave law enforcement shortly after the shooting, Deflaun calmly told her, “Everything is taken care of now. It’s all over. I won’t hurt you.”

Then, she retreated to her car. As she opened her door, a little boy, later identified as Wells’ nephew and Rios Jr.’s cousin Brian Wells, stopped her, yelling about his uncle.

Hodak said she just looked at him and didn’t respond, and the boy then ran away. On Hodak’s way out of the park, she saw a ranger pulling in and told him two people were dead and there was a man with a gun.

Then she drove to Morro Bay State Park.

Shooter was ‘methodical,’ witness says

Brionna Fernandez was 15 when she and her dad arrived at Morro Strand State Beach on July 8, 2001.

The two planned to surf, she testified, and pulled up to the entrance kiosk to see if they could park in the lot next to it for a few hours.

When they pulled up, she saw a man, now identified as Wells, and a child step out of the way so her dad could speak with the kiosk attendant, Hodak.

Hodak told them they could park, and her father began a lefthand turn toward the lot when they also thought they heard fireworks, Fernandez said. But as soon as Fernandez began to tell her dad it was weird for someone to be doing fireworks so close to the ranger kiosk, she realized the noise was actually gunshots.

She said her dad told her to get down as he tried to drive, and she saw Deflaun point a gun at her and her dad at a close enough range that she thought she made eye contact with him.

Her father drove away, and as she looked behind her, she said she saw Deflaun shoot a man who was already lying on the ground, motionless.

“I covered my ears and eyes and got down,” Fernandez said.

Fernandez testified that Deflaun seemed calm and appeared intended to shoot specific people.

“It was almost methodical, like he had intentions for who he shot and nobody else,” she testified, adding that Deflaun had the opportunity to shoot her and her father, but didn’t.

Her dad was about to leave, but then stopped his truck at the top of a hill that lead to the kiosk. There, he yelled at people unloading their cars for the beach to leave, saying that someone had a gun.

Fernandez watched a ranger drive up and take out a shotgun, and “immediately” begin exchanging gunfire with Deflaun.

Campers recall witnessing fight that sparked shootout

Two people who were camping at Morro Strand State Beach the day of the shooting also took the stand Wednesday.

Jeffrey Lindley was there with his wife and then-3-year-old child, and Michel Myers was there with his then-girlfriend, now wife.

Lindley and his family were camping at a site across from Deflaun, and Lindley saw Deflaun moving around his campsite around 3 p.m.

Lindley said nothing seemed out of the ordinary, other than Deflaun seeming to look a bit disheveled.

After some time passed, Lindley’s attention turned back to Deflaun’s campsite, when he saw a large recreational vehicle parked parallel to Deflaun’s van and two men yelling and pointing fingers at each other.

He couldn’t hear exactly what was said, Lindley said, but knew the argument was about the campsite because he heard the man from the RV say something to the effect of, “We don’t fit in other spots. Yours is one of the only big ones.”

About 15 minutes after the RV left Deflaun’s campsite, Lindley heard the first shot, then a second. Ten seconds later, he heard three to four more shots, he said.

Lindley said he and his family took cover in the sand dunes, and he called 911. He could see people running around the kiosk but was too far away to see the gunman.

Myers testified he pulled into the state beach behind Deflaun, and said he thought Deflaun’s van was “creepy” because it had bubble wrap on the windows.

Myers’ campsite was about four spaces from Deflaun’s, but Deflaun drove up and yelled at Myers and his girlfriend at first, thinking they were in his spot. Myers’ girlfriend showed Deflaun a map and pointed to his campsite, and Deflaun left.

Two to three hours later, Myers witnessed the argument between Wells and Deflaun but didn’t hear any specifics. He said the two men were yelling, and the driver of the RV drove away at a high rate of speed.

About 15 minutes after the RV left, Myers saw Deflaun walking quickly toward the kiosk. Soon after, he thought he heard firecrackers, but then someone ran down to the campsites and yelled, “He has a gun.”

Myers said he saw Deflaun pacing around when a member of law enforcement arrived and took out a shotgun. When more shots were fired, Myers said he took cover behind a large van in a nearby campsite.

He said he could only hear gunshots after law enforcement arrived and couldn’t say for certain whether both Deflaun and the officer were shooting.

What’s next in the trial

Now-retired State Parks Ranger Charles “Chuck” Jackson began his testimony just before the court day ended. He has worked as a sworn peace officer for State Parks for 25 years and was the first law enforcement officer at the scene of the shooting.

He is expected to finish his testimony Thursday, followed by more witness testimony.

The trial is expected to last until the end of April.