Moorpark Man Ordered to Stand Trial in Slaying

A 30-year-old Moorpark man was ordered Wednesday to stand trial on murder charges in connection with last month’s deadly shooting of his brother-in-law in the garage of his parents’ home.

The defendant’s mother was the primary witness to testify during a preliminary hearing in Ventura County Superior Court. Bonnie Myers told a judge she watched her son, Paul Myers, gun down her 26-year-old son-in-law, Jason Weaver, on Aug. 11 during an argument over a Nintendo game.

Distraught and crying as she took the witness stand, Myers described how Weaver and his 7-year-old son, Jimmy, came to her Clemson Street home about 4 p.m. to retrieve the boy’s video-game equipment.

Paul Myers asked Weaver if he could continue using the game. Myers, who is wanted by the Army for walking away during basic training two years ago, recently moved from Toronto, Canada, to his parents’ home.

Bonnie Myers said an argument broke out between her son and Weaver over the game as the pair stood at the entrance to her garage.

“The next thing I recall were gunshots,” she said.

Bonnie Myers testified that she never saw her son holding a gun before the shots rang out.

Weaver, a Granada Hills resident, tried to get away by running down the driveway, but was hit several times and fell to the ground. Myers said her son stopped firing when Weaver collapsed.

Bonnie Myers said her son then turned the gun in her direction and said: “Didn’t you see? He was going to kill me.”

Myers told Superior Court Judge Edward Brodie that she never saw Weaver swing at her son or try to injure him in any way. Weaver, who was hospitalized after the shooting, died the next day.

Paul Myers, whose father is a Los Angeles Police Department sergeant, was arrested almost immediately after the shooting. He was charged with a single count of murder on Aug. 18, and faces two allegations of using a deadly firearm during a crime. He has pleaded not guilty.

During Wednesday’s hourlong hearing, Paul Myers showed little reaction to his mother’s testimony. He rocked back and forth in his chair, ran his fingers through his shaggy brown hair and scratched his beard.

Occasionally, he would lean over and talk to his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Doug Daily.

On cross-examination, Daily tried to show that Weaver was the one who instigated the fight. Bonnie Myers acknowledged that Weaver was aggressive and agitated that day. She said she tried to stop him from arguing with her son, grabbing his arm at one point during the dispute.

That testimony angered Weaver’s father and stepmother, who sat arm-in-arm in the front row of the courtroom, alongside the victim’s mother and two other relatives.

At one point, the bailiff warned the stepmother to rein in her emotions or risk being ejected from the courtroom.

After the hearing, Weaver’s father, Al, said the shooting has been devastating for his family and has strained the relationship with their son’s in-laws.

“It’s hard to sit there and listen,” he said. “This is my son.

“We’re trying to keep this all together for the grandkids.”

In addition to his son Jimmy, Jason Weaver is survived by a 2-year-old son, Kyle, and a daughter, Heather, who was just 3 weeks old at the time of her father’s death.

The victim’s wife, Christina, came out publicly after the shooting to defend her brother, saying he was mentally unstable at the time. There was no testimony offered Wednesday about the defendant’s mental state.

Although prosecutors played an audiotape that included Bonnie Myers telling a detective her son had been drinking the day of the shooting, the defense presented no evidence for the purposes of Wednesday’s hearing to show that he may have been impaired.

Judge Brodie determined there was enough evidence to support the murder charge and ordered Paul Myers held on $500,000 bail until his trial. He is next scheduled to appear in court Sept. 29.