Injured Slaying Suspect Enters Plea : Crime: Paralyzed Reseda man charged with murder, robbery after fatal shootout in Newbury Park with officers from controversial LAPD unit.

A robbery suspect paralyzed by police bullets in a gunfight at a Newbury Park liquor store pleaded not guilty to murder charges Tuesday for the part prosecutors said he played in the death of his alleged accomplice.

Sitting in a wheelchair and propped up with a chest brace, Robert Wayne Cunningham, 31, of Reseda also pleaded not guilty in Ventura County Superior Court to seven other felony charges, including attempted murder, robbery and burglary.

Officers with the Los Angeles Police Department’s covert Special Investigations Section said they followed Cunningham and Daniel Joseph Soly, 26, into Ventura County and watched the two rob South West Liquor & Deli at gunpoint June 26.

The two men then got into a gunfight with about a dozen police officers. Soly was killed and two officers were injured along with Cunningham, who is expected to remain paralyzed below the waist. The two officers recovered.

Prosecutors charged Cunningham with murder because they said he fired the shots that started the shooting. Ventura County investigators said that Soly did not fire a shot.

Investigators said Cunningham was the passenger in a car driven by Soly and that he popped out of the car’s sunroof and opened fire on the LAPD officers.

Additionally, the first-degree murder charge also alleges special circumstances because the killing occurred during the commission of a felony. If convicted, Cunningham could be sentenced to death.

“No decision as to whether to ask for death has been made,” said Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Donald C. Glynn, who said prosecutors were busy investigating another, unrelated murder case that could lead to the death penalty.

But Gary Windom, Cunningham’s attorney, said he has received “signs” from the prosecution that it will not seek the death penalty.

Judge Charles W. Campbell scheduled Cunningham’s jury trial for Jan. 8.

Windom said he will investigate the police’s Special Investigations Section, a covert, undercover police unit, as part of his defense. The unit has drawn criticism for allowing suspects to commit crimes before arresting them.

“If we go to trial, I have to know why they were here,” Windom said.

Ventura County investigators have said that one of the wounded officers may have been shot by a colleague. LAPD investigators declined to comment on the case.

“Our investigation is still being conducted,” LAPD spokesman Eduardo Fuenes said.

Cunningham is being held without bail in the Ventura County Jail’s infirmary.