Defense Says Slain Migrant Threatened Man With Rock

A San Ysidro man killed an illegal immigrant in self-defense because the victim was threatening him with a rock, his lawyer said Thursday as the defendant’s murder trial began.

Defense attorney Scott Rand said Harold Bassham, 20, confronted Humberto Reyes Miranda, 23, on April 20 after a group of six illegal immigrants crossed through his back yard. Bassham’s home is one of the first that smugglers reach as they cross into the United States.

Reyes was the last person to climb a fence out of Bassham’s yard and threw bricks at his dog, Rand said. Rand showed the Superior Court jury a photo of the injured animal.

Bassham recognized Reyes as the man who had attacked the dog three times in the past month, Rand said. Bassham’s anger was inflamed when Reyes gave him “the middle-finger salute,” Rand said.

Enraged by the brazenness of the migrants, Bassham set out in pursuit. He found them scaling a freeway noise barrier at a cul-de-sac on Valentino Street.

“When he drives up there, number one, he had no gun in his hand, and number two, he had no intention of using the gun,” Rand said.

Rand said Bassham yelled at Reyes but became frightened when the migrant picked up rocks and chunks of cement.

“This man saw Mr. Bassham,” Rand said. “He didn’t just jump over the wall, he starts toward Mr. Bassham.”

Bassham took a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol out of a hidden compartment in his car and fired two warning shots, Rand said.

But then Reyes, armed with a rock, began to run at Bassham, who fired a single shot that hit Reyes in the chest, Rand said.

Bassham “had an honest and reasonable belief that he was going to be severely injured,” Rand told the jury.

The jury heard a strikingly different version of the events from Deputy Dist. Atty. Jennifer Crossland and Javier Rodriguez Martinez, the first witness in the trial, who said he was a lifelong friend of the slain man.

Although there is no dispute that the group illegally entered the United States and passed through Bassham’s back yard, Rodriguez said no one bothered the dog and that Reyes was attempting to climb the wall to reach Interstate 5 when he was shot.

Rodriguez said that after climbing the concrete wall he heard two shots. From the top of the wall he could see Bassham, holding a small gun with both hands, fire at Reyes, who dropped to his knees, Rodriguez said.

Bassham was arrested the next day and showed police where the pistol was hidden. He is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail.

The jury will have to decide whether to believe Bassham or Rodriguez. The only other witness to the shooting, a boy who lives in a house on the cul-de-sac, was unable to see Reyes when he was shot and will not be able to testify whether he was armed with a rock.