Lawyer Says His Client Is Guilty, but Not of Murder

No one’s disputing that Daniel Bonilla committed a string of crimes last Dec. 5, including kidnapping, carjacking, robbery, and threatening a witness, his attorney told jurors during opening statements Monday.

Bonilla did not, however, fire the bullet that took the life of acquaintance Thomas Mahl after an argument at the Casitas Springs trailer park that same evening, defense attorney Steven Lipson said.

“He is guilty of a number of counts, no doubt about it,” Lipson said. “But not the murder count.”

While his attorney laid out his client’s transgressions, Bonilla, 27, sat calmly at the defense table, showing no reaction.

Bonilla is accused of shooting Mahl in the head, then kidnapping a Ventura taxicab driver, robbing him and forcing him at gunpoint to speed 100 mph to Santa Barbara County.

Among the most damning evidence against Bonilla, prosecutor Richard Simon said in his turn before the jury on the opening day of trial, is a question Bonilla asked detectives about Mahl’s condition.

“He asked if there was any brain activity,” Simon said. “At that moment, the detective never told him Thomas Mahl had been shot in the head.”

That’s something only the shooter could have known, Simon added.

According to Simon, several people saw Bonilla at the Casitas Springs trailer park the day of the shooting. Resident Susan Gordon said that at about 7:30 p.m. she ran into Bonilla, who told her Mahl was looking for her.

Gordon, however, did not want to see Mahl, 36, of Ojai, and instead went into her grandmother’s nearby trailer, Simon said. Not long after, Gordon allegedly heard shouting and cursing in the parking lot, followed by the sound of three gunshots. As Gordon ran to a window and peered outside, she looked directly at Bonilla, Simon said.

Two men in another trailer opened their door at the sound of gunshots, but quickly closed it after the shooter yelled, “You want some of this,” and fired a shot through their window, Simon told jurors.

The bullet did not hit anyone, however, and the witnesses told authorities it was too dark to see who fired at them.

Authorities called to the scene found Mahl lying bleeding in the parking lot. He died four days later.

After the shooting, authorities allege that Bonilla walked to a nearby house and asked an elderly couple to call him a taxi.

Simon said Bonilla kidnapped cab driver F. G. Fencher and threatened to kill him if he didn’t drive him to Santa Barbara at 100 mph. He later stole $120 from the driver and then released him unharmed in Goleta, Simon said.

A police chase ensued, and Bonilla finally lost control of the taxi north of Santa Barbara, careening 90 feet down a ditch off the freeway.

Inside the taxi, authorities recovered a .22-caliber revolver with three spent rounds.

Authorities also allege that from jail, Bonilla called Gordon, knowing she was a witness to the shooting, and warned, “You’re a dead” woman.

The trial continues today in Superior Court Judge Ken Riley’s courtroom, where the kidnapped cab driver is expected to testify.