Man accused of killing 1 and wounding 4 in Costa Mesa on Thanksgiving testifies he acted in self-defense

A man accused of killing one and wounding several others after a minor traffic collision in Costa Mesa said he stood his ground during testimony Thursday and that he was trying to protect his family when he opened fire last Thanksgiving.

Lee Q. Walker, 42, of Santa Ana faces one count of murder and five counts of attempted murder in connection with a shooting in front of 432 Bay St., one block east of Harbor Boulevard, at about 6:50 p.m. Nov. 24. Prosecutors allege he became enraged after the truck the victims were in grazed the side view mirror of the vehicle he, his 4-year-old son and the boy’s mother were traveling in, then followed them for about a mile before firing at them as they were dropping off a passenger.

The defendant claimed he was only trying to exchange insurance information that evening. He and his attorney, Randall Bethune of the Orange County public defender’s office, said he was upset but unarmed when he got out of his truck and first tried to contact the victims. Walker knocked on the driver side window of their truck at a red light at 19th Street and Harbor Boulevard.

“I didn’t go in trying to kill these guys,” Walker said Thursday.

The victims were landscapers and construction workers from Costa Mesa who all originally emigrated from the same town in Mexico. Those who survived gave testimony with the aid of Spanish interpreters.

They said they were unaware of any collision and that they did not understand what Walker was trying to say to them. They said the light turned green immediately after the defendant initially tried to get a hold of them, so they left.

On Thursday, Walker testified that he thought he saw two handguns along with the six men inside the truck. He claimed that’s why he retrieved a Springfield Armory XD series 9-millimeter pistol from his vehicle’s center console and took it with him as he tried to exchange insurance information with the victims a second time, roughly two minutes later at the scene of the shooting.

Surveillance footage played in court showed the defendant’s vehicle stop in the middle of the street behind the victims’ truck. Walker exited from the driver side, then walked between the two trucks and crossed over to the passenger side as Lucas Rivera-Velasco and Jaime Nieto-Milan were stepping out of the right side of their ride, onto the sidewalk.

Several of the victims testified that they were surprised as Walker approached them but gave conflicting statements regarding whether they knew he was following them. Bethune suggested to jurors that the men hadn’t just stopped to drop off their friend but also to confront the person who had been following them.

“So I stood right there, stood my ground, and the guy starts coming at me,” Walker said.

Walker said he paused near the back of the victims’ truck and heard one of the men shout “what the [expletive].” He claimed he was afraid for himself and his family as they approached him. One of the men was within arms reach and raising an arm toward him when Walker began shooting, he said during testimony Thursday.

“How close does someone have to get to you, when you see someone raise their hands and say [expletive]?” Bethune asked jurors rhetorically.

“He [Walker] was justified in what he did from his perspective,” the defense attorney added.

Walker fired eight rounds, striking five of the six men who were in the truck. Rivera-Velasco was fatally shot in the head and groin.

A photo of Lucas Rivera-Velasco at a sidewalk memorial in Costa Mesa last Thanksgiving.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

“I remember grabbing Lucas, and I would shake him, but there was a lot of blood coming out of his mouth,” Nieto-Milan said via an interpreter. “I told him to hold on, that the ambulance was coming. I would shake him, but he stopped responding.”

Salvador Pulido-Nieto was sitting in the rear-driver’s side of the truck and on the phone with relatives from Mexico at the time. He was hit in the shoulder.

“Bernardo [the man sitting next to him] told me ‘I’ve been shot,’” Pulido-Nieto said from the witness stand. “And I told him, ‘I don’t know what you want from me; I’m screwed too.’”

Afterward, Walker took his girlfriend, Denise Segura, and their son to her parents’ house. She testified that he repeatedly said “I [expletive] up” on the way, but the defendant said that wasn’t true during his testimony.

“He grabbed his head and said ‘I’m a good man ... What do I do?’” Denise Segura’s father, Jesus A. Segura recalled, in tears, during the trial. “And that’s when my wife walked into the room and said ‘Babe, he shot somebody.’”

He told Walker he needed to turn himself in to authorities to protect his family. The defendant visited his brother in Adelanto before calling 911 the following morning.

Feldman noted that Walker did not mention seeing guns in the victims’ truck during an interview with police after his arrest. The prosecutor also pointed out that Walker denied being enraged during his testimony, even though he had told detectives he “saw red” and “lost it” following the minor traffic collision.

No firearms were found inside the victims’ Chevy Silverado, Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Daniel Feldman repeatedly pointed out during trial. There were bladed tools in the vehicle, but the people who were fired upon said they didn’t have time to even consider using those as weapons to defend themselves.