Man testifies about being wounded in barrage of gunfire from deputies

Winston Hayes, the man who led Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies on a low-speed chase through a Compton neighborhood three years ago, wept Tuesday as he testified about the night that 10 deputies fired 120 rounds at him.

Using blown-up photographs of himself, Hayes listed his injuries: wounds to the face and neck that left him with a drooping left eyelid, a bullet that went through his arm, another that pierced a foot, one fingertip blown off, and six scars on his back, all from bullet wounds.

Eight of the deputies who shot Hayes that night watched as he testified Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Compton. He wore a dark suit and a tie-less white shirt buttoned at the neck. He was nervous and appeared defensive -- attempting to explain away his past convictions for assault, arson, theft and resisting arrest -- even before he was subjected to hostile questioning from attorneys defending the deputies.

Hayes, 46, told jurors he feared he was about to be assaulted by a shadowy, armed figure approaching his car, parked on a Compton street. The man was actually a sheriff’s deputy investigating reports of a shooting. Hayes’ lawyer, Joseph M. Barrett, asked why he didn’t stop when he realized that deputies were pursuing him.

“I am bipolar. I have racing thoughts. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on. I don’t want to hurt anybody. I don’t want to be hurt,” Hayes said.

Hayes’ testimony Tuesday -- particularly his grilling by Dennis M. Gonzales, principal deputy county counsel -- was the high point of a civil trial that has refocused attention on professionalism and training in the Sheriff’s Department. He testified for an hour and 10 minutes, repeatedly acknowledging past mistakes but sticking to his story about what happened that night.

The massive display of firepower in a residential neighborhood triggered a public outcry and attracted protests from across the country. Sheriff Lee Baca disciplined all the officers involved. The deputies quickly apologized to residents. A month after the shootings, a professional review concluded that there had been violations of protocols that direct officers to fire three or four shots, then stop to reassess, and to avoid crossfire situations

During the shooting, one deputy was hit in the chest but was saved by a bulletproof vest.

Before trial, Hayes turned down an offer of $500,000 from the county to settle his claims that his civil rights were violated.

Gonzales has insisted that Hayes’ flight was the cause of the chase, which he said was conducted properly.

Though Barrett focused on Hayes’ wounds, Gonzales hammered at his prison record, a typical attack on the honesty of a witness in court. Gonzales brought up an earlier case in which Hayes was convicted of misdemeanor resisting arrest in the same neighborhood. In that case, he had been accused of using a car to threaten officers. Hayes has been convicted four times of misdemeanor resisting arrest, but Superior Court Judge Rose Hom ruled that those convictions were not relevant to allegations about the deputies’ conduct.

Gonzales asked Hayes repeatedly why he did not stop after he realized it was police who were pursuing him.

“Part of me wanted to stop. Part of me say, ‘I don’t know if they’re gonna plant something on me and send me to prison,’ ” Hayes said as his mother looked on.

“You think you would be sent to prison when you hadn’t done anything?” Gonzales asked with a note of incredulity.

Hayes momentarily scowled, then answered evenly: “Sir, things happen, things happen, whether you may be aware of it or not.”

Hayes said that at the end of the 12-minute chase, he was too afraid to put up his hands, leave his vehicle and surrender. He said he never tried to run down deputies, who each earlier testified that they feared for their lives as Hayes drove toward them along a stretch of Butler Street in Compton.

Hayes again acknowledged he had smoked “primo” -- marijuana laced with cocaine -- before the incident.

“I did have a buzz then, but I can’t say I was high, high, high at the time I went over there,” Hayes said under questioning from his attorney. “It may have been in my system, but I ain’t gonna say I was too high and unable to drive.”

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john.spano@latimes.com