SACRAMENTO — Jimmy Siackasorn was "a very angry and hostile young man" when he allegedly shot and killed a Sacramento County sheriff's detective in 2007, a prosecutor said Monday.
At the time of the killing, Siackasorn, 19, held a "hatred" for law enforcement and had a long history of threatening to kill police and probation officers, a Sacramento Superior Court jury was told.
Siackasorn, 19, is on trial for murder in the death of sheriff's gang Det. Vu Nguyen on Dec. 19, 2007. The defendant is charged with killing the 37-year-old Nguyen during a foot pursuit that took place in a gang-infested area of unincorporated south Sacramento called "The Avenues," Deputy District Attorney Rod Norgaard said in his opening remarks.
Defense attorney Sue Karlton said in her opening statements that her client shot Nguyen but that the shooting was in self defense and Siackasorn didn't know Nguyen was a detective.
Norgaard said Nguyen and his partner drove up on Siackasorn while the defendant was standing on the corner of 42nd Avenue and 37th Street waiting to buy marijuana. Siackasorn then took off running and shot and killed Nguyen during a chase that took them into a back yard.
The prosecutor said that Siackasorn had 26 arrests going back to when the defendant was 12 years old and that over the years he made his hatred for law enforcement known.
"I'm going to blast staff in the face when I'm on the outs," Siackasorn once told a probation officer at the Sacramento County Boys Ranch, Norgaard told the jury.
Siackasorn told a probation officer during another contact at his residence, "You're lucky I didn't know you guys were coming, because we would have shot it out," the prosecutor said.
Siackasorn also admitted to shooting the deputy in several conversations he had with people in the hours after the shooting.
Norgaard said Siackasorn knew through his many contacts with law enforcement, including plainclothes officers such as Nguyen, what kind of cars they drove and that he knew the detective and his partner were gang detectives when they pulled up to talk to him.
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