Judge Denies New Trial for Robber Paralyzed in Police Shootout

In denying a request for a new trial, a Ventura County Superior Court judge came to the defense of a controversial Los Angeles police unit that used deadly force while trying to apprehend two men who robbed a Newbury Park liquor store two years ago.

Judge Steven Z. Perren said there was no question that Robert Wayne Cunningham, 33, of Reseda provoked the deadly shootout with the LAPD’s Special Investigations Section in June 1995.

“This was banditry of the highest order--guns, masks, threats to absolutely innocent victims,” Perren said. “If any reasonable person has any question in their mind as to who fired first, then they didn’t hear this case.”

Cunningham was found guilty of first-degree murder in December for instigating the shootout with undercover police, even though it was the officers who killed his partner, 26-year-old Daniel Soly of West Hills.

During the trial, Cunningham testified that officers in the SIS unit started the gun battle. And on Monday he asked Perren to grant a new trial on the grounds that the jury was not fully informed about the unit’s tactics.

The Special Investigations Section has gained notoriety over the last decade for tailing suspected criminals and not confronting them until after they committed crimes. One officer testified during the Cunningham trial that the special unit’s detectives had killed 19 people in surveillance operations.

On Monday, Deputy Public Defender Gary Windom noted a recent incident in Northridge in which SIS officers killed three suspected robbers and wounded a bystander during a gunfight in a residential neighborhood.

“The same unit did the same exact thing,” Windom maintained, pointing to similarities between his case and the Feb. 25 Northridge incident. “These people are above the law, your honor.”

But Perren said the jury heard ample evidence about the police unit during the trial.

Cunningham, who faces a minimum of imprisonment of 25 years to life, is set for sentencing on Wednesday.

“There was a constant drumbeat throughout the case to try the police,” Perren said. “As a result, this jury was presented with a great deal of information about SIS. They were not Boy Scouts, nor should they have been. And the jury knew it.”

The Special Investigations Section was watching Cunningham and Soly when they robbed the South West Liquor and Deli in Newbury Park on June 26, 1995, according to court testimony.

As the pair left the store, police moved in and a gunfight broke out. Soly was fatally shot, riddled with 27 bullet wounds to the back and head, and Cunningham was paralyzed from the waist down when a bullet struck his spine.

Prosecutors evoked a legal theory that Cunningham should be held responsible for Soly’s death although he did not shoot his partner. Cunningham provoked the gunfight, they argued, by firing a pistol out of his car sunroof while trying to escape.

The jury convicted Cunningham of first-degree murder and seven other charges, including attempted murder of three police officers.

Six members of the jury came to court Monday for Cunningham’s sentencing, which was delayed two days because of a scheduling error.

Several jurors shook their heads in disagreement as Windom told the judge that the panel wrongly convicted his client and should have known more about the reputation of the LAPD’s undercover squad.