2 Men Convicted of Shooting and Crippling Deputy Argue for Reversals

It has been five years since Ira Essoe, then an Orange County sheriff’s deputy, was shot while trying to stop an auto burglary in the Orange Mall parking lot. Left paralyzed from the chest down for life, Essoe was forced to retire.

On Tuesday, attorneys for the two men convicted of attempted murder in his shooting asked the Orange County division of the 4th District Court of Appeal to reverse the most serious counts in their convictions, each using a different argument to support claims that his client did not receive a fair trial.

Robert Strong, 24 at the time of the Nov. 6, 1980, shooting, is serving a state prison sentence of 17 years. David Knick, who was 23 then, was sentenced to 16 years.

The appellate justices may have been playing devil’s advocate, but they virtually scoffed at arguments by the lawyers for Knick and Strong.

The facts, which two of the three justices said suggested overwhelming guilt, were:

Essoe and a partner, Greg Brown, approached a car in the mall parking lot that three men were trying to steal. According to trial testimony, one of the three, Strong, got the drop on Brown on one side of the car, and told him, “Drop your gun or I’ll kill you.” Essoe, on the other side, drew his gun and shots were exchanged. Essoe was struck twice by bullets from a .45-caliber gun fired by Knick.

After Essoe fell to the pavement, Knick and Strong jumped into the officers’ unmarked car, which had been left with the engine running and the doors open, and fled. Another officer chased the speeding car on the Orange Freeway. Testimony showed that while Strong drove, Knick fired shots at the pursuing officer. Strong and Knick eventually wrecked the car near the junction of the Orange and Pomona freeways, and were immediately arrested.

The third man, David Vogel, 33, who had fled on foot, was captured, pleaded guilty and was given a concurrent sentence with a bank robbery conviction.

Knick’s appellate attorney, Joel Kriger, argued that his client’s conviction for attempted murder should be reversed because Essoe’s partner, Officer Brown, was hypnotized before he testified. The state Supreme Court later threw out most testimony from hypnotized witnesses. It applies retroactively only in cases where there is a high probability that a conviction could not be gained without the testimony.

But Justices Edward Wallin and John Trotter appeared almost dumbfounded when Kriger suggested that Knick would not have been convicted without Brown’s testimony.

“Let’s think about what happened,” Wallin interjected. “These guys were caught in the (police) car; Officer Essoe was found shot. Who else was going to get blamed? It was a hopeless case for the defense once (the two men) got caught.”

Kriger called that “circumstantial” evidence, which prompted Trotter to say incredulously, “Circumstantial?”

Lynda Romero, appellate attorney for Strong, pressed a different argument: The trial judge should have told the jurors that in order for them to find Strong guilty of attempted murder in the shooting of Essoe, they would have to find that Strong shared an intent with Knick to kill Essoe, not just knowledge that Knick was shooting at Essoe.

“Can’t we infer an intent to kill?” Trotter asked. “He turns to Brown and says, ‘Get down or I’ll kill you?’ ” The justices also pointed out that there was evidence that Strong also shot at Essoe, though he missed.

Later, Kriger and Romero said they were not optimistic for their clients.

Knick and Strong, they said, are sorry about what happened.

“In the three years I’ve known Mr. Strong, he’s changed,” Romero said. “He is extremely remorseful about what happened. The whole thing was very tragic.”

Essoe, now 44 and living in Westminster, could not be reached for comment on the arguments. He has remained active with the Sheriff’s Department, helping out at its training academy.

The justices will issue a decision in the next few months.