The state Attorney General’s Office will not retry the former Los Angeles Police Department officer who fatally shot an intellectually disabled man and wounded his parents in the Corona Costco in 2019, the defense attorney told the Southern California News Group on Friday, Feb. 9.
Salvador Alejandro Sanchez killed Kenneth French, 32, after the non-verbal man slugged Sanchez as the off-duty officer held his toddler in the sausage samples line in the deli on June 14, 2019. French’s parents, Russell and Paoli, were wounded as they attempted to shield their son from the volley of 10 bullets.
A mistrial was declared in January after the jury deadlocked on one count of voluntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a firearm.
Defense attorney Michael Schwartz said that jurors favored acquittal on the voluntary manslaughter charge by a 9-3 count and were deadlocked on the firearm assault counts that leaned more to acquittals.
Sanchez, now 33, was not in uniform. He said he thought he had been shot and therefore fired in self-defense.
Deputy Attorney General Mike Murphy argued during the monthlong trial that Sanchez acted in haste, and had he taken a moment to assess the situation would have realized he had not been shot and that the danger had passed.
A hearing when the AG’s Office would announce its decision had been scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 13, in Superior Court in Indio. But because Superior Court Judge Jason L. Stone was not going to be available on Tuesday, a telephone hearing was held on Friday, the defense attorney said.
The prosecutor “invited the court to dismiss the case, which the court did,” Schwartz said.
The Attorney General’s Office confirmed Friday that it will not retry the case.
“The Department of Justice stands by the decision to charge and prosecute this case, however, after considering a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, the input of the surviving victims and feedback from the trial jury, the…
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