Guard Certain Pair Were Shot by Beauregard

Darrell L. Butler, a security guard at the Elks Lodge, testified Thursday that he was certain former Cal State Northridge football player Jonathan Beauregard shot his former girlfriend and her male companion in the bar’s parking lot Aug. 29, 1994.

Butler said he got a good look at Beauregard’s face seconds after the shooting and recognized him because he had seen him at the bar before. He said Beauregard quickly walked away and later fled the scene in a brown car. Butler pointed to Beauregard from the stand and testified, “there’s no question in my mind” Beauregard pulled the trigger that night.

Beauregard, 23, is charged with two counts of attempted murder and is being tried in San Bernardino Superior Court for allegedly shooting Dunyella D. Smith and her companion, Von E. Thompson, as they sat in Thompson’s truck talking at about 1:30 a.m.

Smith was hit in the hip. Thompson was struck in the arm and chest. A bulletproof vest is credited with saving his life.

In testimony that contradicts statements she made to police after the shooting, Smith said Thursday she was positive Beauregard did not shoot her and Thompson.

Smith, who cried throughout her testimony, said she didn’t recall telling police she saw Beauregard walking in the parking lot of the Elks Lodge that night. When confronted with the Aug. 29 police report in which she identified Beauregard as the attacker, she said, “I didn’t see the person. . . . I told a officer I seen a man with a red shirt walking away.”

When Deputy Dist. Atty. Cheryl Kersy asked Smith if she had lied to police, Smith said, “I exaggerated to police officers.”

Smith also downplayed two previous incidents--in April and June, 1994--in which she called police after allegedly being attacked by Beauregard. A 911 tape from June 30, 1994, was played in court with a woman’s voice saying, “My ex-boyfriend pulled a knife to my throat. . . . His name is Jonathan Beauregard. . . . He threatened to come up and kill me.”

Smith denied making that 911 call from her mother’s house but acknowledged filing a police report later. “That wasn’t me on the tape,” Smith testified. “It don’t sound like me.”

When Kersy asked Smith about the current status of her relationship with Beauregard, Smith denied the two were romantically involved but acknowledged she is in contact with him.

Beauregard has been free on $100,000 bail and if convicted faces a prison term of five years to life.