Security Guard Acquitted of Murder in Man’s Death

A San Bernardino County jury has acquitted an apartment complex security guard of murder, but it left open the possible refiling of a voluntary manslaughter charge by deadlocking on that allegation.

The security guard, Dameon Kashaum Wroe, 33, of West Covina remains jailed at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga on $1-million bail, pending an Oct. 15 hearing in which prosecutors plan to announce whether the manslaughter charge will be refiled.

“I will talk it over with my bosses,” said Jeremy Carrasco, the deputy district attorney who prosecuted the case.

Wroe was charged with the murder of Michael Krause Jr., a 19-year-old from Rancho Cucamonga who trespassed by driving his pickup onto the apartment complex grounds Jan. 1.

Krause was there to see his girlfriend, but Wroe ordered him off the property. Backing his truck out of a parking spot, Krause’s driver’s-side mirror struck Wroe, prompting the guard to confront Krause again as the complex’s gate slowly rolled open.

With Wroe pointing his 9-millimeter handgun at the truck, Krause didn’t respond to Wroe’s order to turn off the truck’s engine, and attempted to speed away from the complex. Wroe fired four shots, the second of which killed Krause.

The jury didn’t agree with Carrasco’s closing argument that Wroe’s conduct equaled second-degree murder because his decision to shoot was based on his anger at being “blown off” by Krause, and on Wroe’s “ego and attitude” to demand respect, as if he were a police officer.

In announcing their verdict Thursday, jurors reported they were deadlocked on the manslaughter charge, voting 7 to 5 in favor of acquittal.

Defense attorney Donald Calabria told jurors Wednesday in his closing statement that Krause “caused his own demise” by trespassing, smoking marijuana and relying on “impaired judgment” by failing to respect Wroe’s authority.

Carrasco said he was stunned by the acquittal, saying he “hoped the jury didn’t rely on the defense’s misrepresentations of Michael Krause’s character.... This was just a teenage boy trying to go see a girl.”