Jurors Reenact Fatal Shooting During Visit to Auto Yard

Like actors in a silent movie, jurors and attorneys Friday paced the automotive yard where Edward Nishida Drake fatally shot a 17-year-old more than 15 months ago.

No words were uttered by law officials.

No explanations were proffered.

The walk-through was intended to give jurors a sense of gunshot angles and outside lighting as well as the layout of Drake’s automotive store.

More importantly, it was intended to help them visualize what could have led the 52-year-old auto mechanic to shoot Leonard Anthony Coppola, a young man he knew and liked, from just seven feet away in an automotive lot off Chambers Lane.

On Oct. 10, 1997, about 9 p.m., Coppola and a friend were trying to retrieve a trailer from a lot in the rear of Drake’s repair shop for a weekend camping trip.

When Drake--who was sleeping in the back room on a cot--heard the rattle of the chain on the fence, he believed it was caused by an intruder, according to earlier testimony. He grabbed his .44 caliber revolver, kicked open the shop door and shot Coppola.

Drake now faces a second-degree murder charge and the possibility of serving 25 years to life in prison.

On Friday afternoon, the jurors climbed off the bus, notebooks in hand, and peered around the crime site they have so far seen only on video, mapped out in diagrams and blown up in pictures.

They fingered a 5-by-5-inch hole in the chain-link fence where a single bullet tore through, ripped into Coppola’s lip and ended up lodged in his spine.

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They flicked the single automotive yard light on and off.

One juror clanked the chain on the fence while another walked inside and shut the door--to see whether he could hear the clanging from inside.

Some stood before the hole in the fence--about four feet above the ground--to see whether Coppola could have been crouched in a threatening position that defense attorney Stephen Hogg in his opening statement likened to “a standard combat stance.”

Then some of them played out the scene.

One juror squatted in front of the fence pretending to open the padlock, while another kicked open the door and aimed, with an imaginary gun in his hand. They repeated the scenario three times before switching places.

The shooting occurred at night, and jurors’ assessment of how well Drake could see will doubtless influence their final judgment of his actions. Nevertheless, the jurors were brought to the scene in broad daylight.

“There was no way you could create the moon and the exact conditions” of that night, Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Calvert said.

In other testimony Friday, Gary Eisenhauer, Coppola’s motorcycle companion, concluded his account of the events.

His testimony had been cut short Thursday afternoon, after he became hostile to both the prosecution and defense attorneys, lashing out as they prodded him to recall details he has tried to block out since the night his friend was killed.

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But Friday morning he testified more clearly and confidently, saying that Thursday’s testimony stirred up the memories he has tried to suppress.

“I dreamed last night,” he said. “I had nightmares over and over--and I remember hearing the lock that night, because it had a significant sound. . . . I do remember hearing the lock, clanking on that round pole.”

Defense attorney Hogg tried to undermine Eisenhauer’s testimony about the sound of the lock, implying it was just a dream. But Eisenhauer angrily shot back that it was real.

“I dreamed about when I ran up and saw him on the ground,” he said. “That’s what brought it back. That picture brought back a lot of memories.”

Calvert presented medical evidence that Drake had had significant levels of alcohol in his blood several hours after the shooting. A nurse who took a blood sample from Drake at 1:11 a.m., said his blood-alcohol level was .08. A forensic alcohol specialist speculated that just after the shooting, the level would have been closer to .10. A person with a blood-alcohol level of .08 is considered legally drunk.

Hogg said he expected Drake to testify Monday. The trial is expected to end by late Monday or early Tuesday.