Murder Trial Involving LAPD Starts

The murder trial of a robber whose partner was fatally shot by Los Angeles police officers last year began Friday as prosecutors argued that Robert Wayne Cunningham should be held responsible for the Newbury Park killing.

But in a scathing attack on the LAPD, a defense attorney told the jury that the killer in this case is not his client but a controversial police unit that followed the pair to Ventura County to start a deadly gunfight.

“They wanted to be in a place to see a robbery and thus be placed in a position where they could execute,” Senior Deputy Public Defender Gary Windomsaid in his opening statement.

On the night of June 26, 1995, officers in unmarked cars followed Cunningham and Daniel Soly, 26, from Los Angeles County to a Newbury Park liquor store and deli.

They watched the pair rob the store at gunpoint, authorities said, adding that it was not until the men left the store and reached their car that the police moved in, prompting a gunfight that left Soly dead and Cunningham paralyzed from the waist down.

During Friday’s opening statements, Cunningham sat in a blue wheelchair and watched the lawyers lay out contrasting theories of how the shooting went down.

Cunningham, a Reseda resident, is accused of murder and nine related charges including robbery and attempted murder for allegedly provoking the shootout with the Los Angeles Police Department’s Special Investigations Section unit.

The SIS squad, which specializes in surveillance, has drawn criticism for allowing suspects to commit crimes before arresting them.

Earlier this week, Superior Court Judge Steven Z. Perren ruled in favor of the defense by denying a motion filed by the Los Angeles city attorney seeking to quash a subpoena of LAPD Chief Willie Williams. The chief was ordered to be on-call to testify about his officers’ conduct and his role in the investigation of the shooting.

In his opening statements, Deputy Dist. Atty. Don Glenn told the jury that the SIS unit was called in by an LAPD sergeant to investigate a series of 40 robberies in Simi Valley and the San Fernando Valley linked to Soly and Cunningham.

Officers from that squad followed the suspected robbers to Ventura County as part of a surveillance operation that had been going on for several weeks, Glenn said.

They waited outside the liquor store, he told the jury, to prevent a possible hostage situation since an officer saw that the men were armed.

“The plan was to wait until they came out of the deli,” Glenn said, “and the officers were going to conduct what was called a ‘jam.’

“This is something the SIS officers have been doing for 28 years,” he said, explaining that the tactic involves trapping a suspect’s car between two police vehicles. “The people who are being arrested usually don’t put up any resistance at all.”

But Soly and Cunningham did resist. Pinned in between two police cars, Cunningham popped out of the sunroof of Soly’s car and started firing, Glenn told the jury. He fired four shots with a .38-caliber pistol, striking a police officer and starting a gunfight with authorities.

“Everything that took place at the side of the vehicle happened because of Mr. Cunningham’s action of popping out of the sunroof,” Glenn argued.

Relatives of Cunningham and Soly sat quietly in the courtroom gallery. One started to cry when Glenn showed graphic photos of Soly’s slumped body, shot 27 times during the gunfight.

In his opening remarks, Windom turned the focus away from Cunningham and onto the Los Angeles police officers who conducted the surveillance.

“We intend to show you they had a more sinister purpose than that,” he said. “They came to this county with a different purpose and that is to kill.”

Windom told the jury that officers knew Soly had a warrant for violating parole, but did not arrest him when they had ample opportunity.

He said the officers knowingly moved into the jurisdiction of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department on the night of the shooting but did not notify local authorities.

Windom admitted that his client robbed the liquor store, but urged the jury not to convict on the murder charge. He said Cunningham will take the stand during what is expected to be an eight-week trial to testify that he did not start the shooting.

“He isn’t an angel,” Windom said, concluding a fiery statement. “He should be found guilty for what he did do. He should be acquitted for what he didn’t do.”