Pittsburg police informant gave detectives information on a cold case homicide, but ended up implicating himself

MARTINEZ — Pittsburg police have closed a chilly case murder investigation within the strangest of how: the suspect advised on himself.

The killing of 22-year-old Danny Guyse Jr. in 2000 initially baffled police, and remained unsolved for years. However in 2021, police arrested and charged 46-year-old Elk Grove resident Paea Tasini, writing in a information launch {that a} main break within the case got here two years earlier than Tasini’s arrest.

The large break within the case, it seems, was Tasini’s personal statements to police. Now, Tasini is going through fees of murdering Guyse and trying to homicide a second man in an earlier, unrelated capturing. His trial started Monday in a Contra Costa courtroom.

In 2019, a retired Pittsburg police detective, Kirk Sullivan, took on the Guyse investigation in his newfound function as a part-time chilly case inspector. He seen that Tasini had been interviewed however noticed no corresponding report, so Sullivan travelled to Elk Grove, knocked on Tasini’s door, and requested if he wished to speak, authorities stated.

Tasini agreed. It turned out he had heaps to say.

“Inspector Sullivan thought he was going to speak to a witness,” Contra Costa Deputy District Legal professional Satish Jallepalli advised jurors firstly of Tasini’s trial Monday. “What he discovered was he was speaking to the person who made the homicide occur.”

In an hours-long police interview, Tasini advised authorities that he was driving a Mustang by way of Pittsburg on Sept. 27, 2000, with two different males. They had been headed for town’s El Pueblo neighborhood when a passenger noticed Guyse in a brown Datsun, Jallepalli stated.

The passenger, in line with Tasini, directed him to show round and pull up alongside Guyse. He wished to do a drive-by capturing, however Tasini allegedly insisted the passenger get out, stroll over to Guyse, and kill him. Guyse was shot twice behind the ear.

The motive, in line with Jallepalli, needed to do with a feud between rival drug crews in East Contra Costa on the time. Guyse had allegedly made disparaging feedback in regards to the alleged shooter, however pleaded together with his killers in his last moments, telling them he had no real interest in the dispute between crews.

The 2 different males who allegedly rode within the Mustang with Tasini, together with the shooter, had been arrested in 2020 however by no means charged, authorities stated. Tasini is now the one defendant and going through life in jail if convicted.

His lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Tim Ahearn, on Monday advised jurors there can be little argument in regards to the details throughout trial, however he urged them to pay shut consideration after they pay attention to very large parts of Tasini’s recorded statements to police.

“Mr. Tasini didn’t order an execution. There was no dialogue about executing or killing somebody within the automotive,” Ahearn stated. He added the suspected shooter merely advised Tasini to observe the Datsun, however by no means stated why.

To counter that, Jallepalli will possible level to the alleged tried homicide, which occurred eight months earlier than Guyse’s loss of life. In that occasion, Tasini and the alleged shooter had been driving beneath a practice trestle on Jan. 4, 2000 when their automotive was hit by rocks. He stated they hunted down the rock-throwers and that Tasini opened fireplace and shot one in every of them. Afterwards, he angrily chastised his passenger — the identical man he would later accuse of capturing Guyse — for not grabbing his gun in time, Jallepalli stated.

However Ahearn stated that Tasini believed the pebbles that cracked his windshield had been bullets.

“They believed (the rock throwers) had been capturing. To be able to defend themselves, they shot again,” he stated.

The trial is anticipated to final two weeks, in entrance of Decide Mary Ann O’Malley within the AF Bray Courthouse.