Confrontation Leading to Slaying Described

A prosecution witness testified Wednesday that Howard F. Barton Jr. and his daughter entered a Pacific Beach store, where the elder Barton angrily berated Marco Sanchez for spitting on his daughter’s car, and then moments later shot and fatally wounded Sanchez.

Michael Nattkemper, a cashier at the sporting goods store in Pacific Beach, said that Sanchez, 24, was at the rear of the store looking at shoes when the Bartons walked in and confronted him.

“(Barton) was mad . . . . They were arguing about an altercation in the traffic,” said Nattkemper, adding that Barton talked to Sanchez about the spitting incident.

The Feb. 22 confrontation was precipitated by an earlier dispute the same day between Sanchez, a National City resident, and Andrea Barton, 20. Police said that Sanchez and the woman exchanged angry words after her car had stalled in traffic at Grand Avenue and Ingraham Street.

Prosecutors say the woman drove off from the scene of the dispute and went to her father’s nearby real estate office on Cass Avenue. Father and daughter then went looking for Sanchez and found him inside the Cal Stores store in the 1000 block of Garnet Avenue.

According to Nattkemper, the confrontation inside the store lasted about a minute, with Sanchez “standing and listening to what Barton was saying” without arguing back. Sanchez walked from the store toward his car, the Bartons following him.

During questioning by defense attorney Clyde Munsell, Nattkemper said that he saw Barton try unsuccessfully to keep Sanchez from entering his car. When Sanchez got behind the steering wheel, Barton held the door open and ordered Sanchez out of the car, he added.

Another prosecution witness, Richee L. Pickett, testified that he was driving east on Garnet when he saw Barton crouched in a shooter’s position, aiming a gun at Sanchez, who was inside the car. Pickett said he stopped his van at the Cass-Garnet intersection to watch the incident.

Pickett said he briefly considered running over Barton, who he thought was “someone crazy with a gun.”

“(Barton) was angry. I could tell that. But then I assumed he was an undercover officer making an arrest,” Pickett said.

Moments later, Pickett said he saw Barton fire a shot and saw Sanchez exit through the passenger door and run down the sidewalk, away from Barton.

“There was obvious blood and anguish on his face,” Pickett said.

Nattkemper said he saw Sanchez run past him, with blood coming out of his mouth, before collapsing on the sidewalk.

According to a police report of the incident, Sanchez was shot once in the back by Barton.

After her father shot Sanchez, Andrea Barton ran inside the store, Nattkemper testified. Nattkemper said she told him to “call the police because the red car is going to get really thrashed.” Sanchez’s car was a red Ford.

Barton, who had a permit to carry a concealed weapon, said he shot Sanchez in self-defense after Sanchez lunged at him with a knife. However, Nattkemper and Pickett said they never saw a weapon in Sanchez’s hand.

Further, Nattkemper testified that he saw Sanchez leaning away from Barton, toward the passenger side door, before he was fatally shot.

None of the witnesses have placed Andrea Barton near Sanchez’s car. On Tuesday, defense attorney Munsell argued that Sanchez was also threatening the woman with a knife when Howard Barton killed him.

The testimony came during a preliminary hearing for Howard Barton, who is charged with murder.

Munsell and Deputy Dist. Atty. Lisa Chappell spent almost two days in a legal joust over the admissibility of a videotape re-enactment of the shooting prepared by the district attorney’s office.

Municipal Judge Rafael A. Arreola ruled Wednesday that the tape could be admitted as evidence despite numerous objections by Munsell.