Another key witness in Arreaga case with inconsistencies and selective amnesia regarding testimony

Friday, October 2, I briefly checked in at the Arreaga trial. Rodney Coombes had finished testifying but other witnesses were still on the stand.

 Will Coombes be recalled by the defense?

In his opening statement, Deputy District Attorney Zachary Curtis referred to Coombes. In her opening statement, Ms. Heidi Holmquist said there were no eyewitnesses and if there were, it would be a surprise on the stand?

I was not present for the one witness that gave key testimony on Friday. Was he beneficial to the prosecution or the defense. You decide.

The rest of us have not covered the Arreaga trial daily, only Paul Mann from Mad River Union has been present every day, so far.

Will Houston from TS covered a couple of days in the Arreaga trial, on Friday, Jessie Faulkner covered the Arreaga,case.

This is the Mad River Union article:

 Surprise testimony today, Oct. 2 in the Jason Michael Arreaga double murder trial provided an unexpected eyewitness account which expressly identified the suspect from Lucerne as the perpetrator of the Fieldbrook shootings a year ago September that claimed the lives of lovers Angel Robin Tully and Harley Hammers Jr., both 37, of Eureka.

The apparent breakthrough testimony came from Fieldbrook lawn keeper and prosecution witness Rodney Coombes, who alleged that Arreaga brandished his pistol at him and yelled “Do you want some of this?!” as Coombes fled down the driveway of the residence where the two murders occurred.

Pointing to Arreaga at the defense table as the man with the gun, Coombes said Harley Hammers “got shot three times as he’s running down the driveway,” Coombes following Hammers as they both ran to escape the flying bullets.

Caught off-guard, Arreaga’s lawyer, Heidi Holmquist, immediately challenged the surprise account, confronting Coombes with the fact that police transcripts verify he did not tell detectives he had witnessed the gunfire when they interviewed him in the immediate aftermath.

Holmquist also called attention to Coombes’s rap sheet, portions of which he claimed not to remember.

Nevertheless, Coombes, who knew Hammers, stood his ground that he saw Arreaga wielding the gun. “I didn’t know if he was shooting at me or what,” he testified.

“And you actually saw this?” Holmquist asked skeptically.

“Yes,” Coombes answered firmly, saying Hammers “was getting out of his car” from the driver’s side  as the fatal encounter occurred.

Challenging Coombes head-on, Holmquist read aloud to him from the transcript of investigators’ interviews, quoting him as saying “I never seen him shoot nobody,” meaning Arreaga.

“I know I didn’t say that,” Coombes retorted. “They must have misunderstood me.”

Becoming agitated as Holmqvist zeroed in on the glaring discrepancy, Coombes bellowed, “Right now, this is a bunch of bullshit! I feel like I’m the one being prosecuted! It’s the same story [from a year ago] I’m telling you right now!”

So the recording and the transcript are mistaken, Holmquist parried, her tone edgy.

“I want to hear it [the recording]!” Coombes exclaimed. Holmquist replied evenly, “Well, we might get to that later.”

Next, she asked Coombes to describe the gun. “I couldn’t really describe it, I don’t know,” he replied.

But you are certain you saw it? “Yes, I saw a man with a gun. Harley was getting out of his car and I told the officers that.”

“I was scared to death,” Coombes added. He insisted that investigators “asked if I saw the shooting and I said I did. I told ‘em two, it might have been three” gun shots. He repeated “I didn’t even know if he was shooting at me, I was gettin’ the hell out of there!”

Asked by Holmquist, Coombes said he had not been drinking or using meth before of after the murders. He said he had been clean for sometime.

She queried him about his prior conviction for petty theft in 2007 and he declared flatly, “I never stole anything.” But he retreated immediately when she showed him his rap sheet.

Coombes also claimed he did not recall being convicted in 2013 of car theft – taking it without the owner’s consent – and being placed on 18 months’ probation.

The trial resumes Monday.

This is the TS article:

Taking the stand Friday morning in the double murder trial of Lake County resident Jason Michael Arreaga, witness Rodney Coombes of Fieldbrook described fleeing for his life on Sept. 3, 2014.

Arreaga, 30, has pleaded not guilty in the shooting deaths of Eureka residents Harley Wayne Hammers Jr. and Angel Robin Tully, both 37, in Fieldbrook. Coombes testified that he'd finished work on the day in question and was driving south on Fieldbrook Road nearing Wagle Lane when he heard what he thought were two shots.

Coombes said he looked over and saw Hammers' vehicle parked in the driveway of a residence south of Wagle Lane, as well as two men and a woman standing over someone on the ground. He told the court that he turned into the driveway, pulled the emergency brake and jumped out.

"Did anything else get your attention?" Deputy District Attorney Zachary Curtis asked.

"A man with a gun standing there asking me if I wanted some of this," Coombes responded. "(I said) No."

Coombes said he recalled seeing Hammers in his vehicle then running down the driveway where he was shot three times.

"He was trying to get the hell away," Coombes said. "He was screaming."

Coombes said he was running right behind Hammers.

Asked by Curtis if the man he saw with a gun that day was in the courtroom, Coombes responded "yes," pointing to the Arreaga.

Arreaga's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Heidi Holmquist, questioned the reliability of the Coombes' statements, pointing out inconsistencies between the witness' testimony Friday morning and what Coombes told sheriff's investigators on the night of the shooting and during an interview two days later.

Coombes testified he had said he saw shots fired at Hammers.

"I told them I did see the shooting," Coombes said, referencing his discussion with law enforcement the night of the shooting.

"Two days later, in an interview with a cop," Holmquist asked, "isn't it true you said, 'I didn't see them shoot anybody.'?"

"I didn't say that," Coombes replied.

When Holmquist read the transcript of that conversation. Coombes denied saying it.

"This is a bunch of bulls---," the witness said. "I don't like what's happening here. I'm feeling prosecuted."

In further questioning, Coombes reiterated that he saw Arreaga with the gun.

"I ran out of the driveway scared to death," he said.

Further questioning was directed toward Coombes' past arrests. Petty theft was not a charge he remembered.

When shown documentation by Holmquist, Coombes conceded that a petty theft conviction was part of his record.

Testimony in the case is scheduled to continue on Monday.