VANCOUVER, Wash. — The trial of robbery suspect Julio Segura, who is charged with murder for instigating a sequence of events that led to the death of off-duty Vancouver police officer Donald Sahota, took a surprising turn Thursday when Judge Nancy Retsinas dismissed two of the three first-degree murder charges against Segura before closing arguments were set to begin.
While fleeing from police on the night of Jan. 29, 2022, Segura ran up to what coincidentally turned out to be Sahota's house. Sahota attempted to arrest Segura in the driveway, and Segura stabbed him and then ran inside. Sahota ran after Segura just as a sheriff's deputy pulled up and, with the deputy mistaking Sahota for the suspect, was shot and killed.
The dismissed charges are the first two listed in an indictment previously filed in court; the indictment lists several additional charges that all appear to still be active, including a third first-degree murder charge, a second-degree murder charge and a first-degree attempted murder charge.
According to the indictment, the first two charges were for murder while in the process of committing other crimes, specifically burglary and attempted kidnapping, because Segura broke into Sahota's home and — the indictment alleges — intended to take his wife Dawnese Sahota as a hostage.
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In a motion filed Wednesday evening, the defense challenged the idea that there was a legal causal link between the burglary and attempted kidnapping crimes and Sahota's death, arguing that the deputy who shot Sahota had no idea, at the time, that the alleged crimes were being committed because he thought the suspect was outside the house.
Retsinas brought up the motion when the court reconvened on Thursday morning and said she agreed with the defense's argument, noting that Segura is still separately facing charges of burglary and attempted kidnapping as crimes in and of themselves.
"All of the alleged conduct of the defendant is contemplated by the charges other than Counts 1 and 2," she said. "I therefore do not find that the state can attach liability in this particular way as to Counts 1 and 2, and I am dismissing those charges."
State prosecutors protested the decision, arguing that they expected the day's proceedings to be only about closing arguments, and they added that the defense's motion hadn't been filed until the previous evening and the prosecution needed more time to develop a full response.
The trial went into recess after Retsinas announced her decision, with both the judge and prosecutors agreeing that the jury instructions would need to be revised. The proceedings are scheduled to reconvene for closing arguments Thursday afternoon, and Retsinas said she would also give prosecutors the opportunity to file a briefing about her ruling.
The remaining murder-related charges listed in the indictment — second-degree murder, first-degree attempted murder and a third count of first-degree murder — all simply accuse Segura of killing or attempting to kill Sahota, without placing those actions in the context of other crimes.
The indictment lists three additional charges: possession of a stolen vehicle, first-degree robbery and attempt to elude pursuing police vehicle, all of which pertain to an alleged convenience store robbery and subsequent police chase that led up to the confrontation at Sahota's house.
Sequence of events
The incident on the night of Jan. 29, 2022 began when Segura, while driving a stolen Mercedes, allegedly robbed a Vancouver gas station convenience store at gunpoint. Law enforcement found him a short time later and pursued him as he fled north, eventually crashing his car in a ditch and running into the woods near Battle Ground.
Segura ran up to the front door of nearby house and asked for help to make a phone call. The house turned out to be the home of Sahota, who was off-duty at the time and at home with his wife. Sahota initially turned Segura away, but after Sahota's wife called 911 and learned that police were pursuing a suspect in the area, Sahota stepped outside and attempted to arrest Segura in the driveway.
Segura resisted and fought Sahota, eventually drawing a knife and stabbing him, causing him to drop his gun. As police and deputies began to arrive at the scene, Segura broke off from the fight and ran into the house. Sahota picked up his gun and began to pursue him.
One of the arriving deputies, John Feller, saw Segura enter the house and saw Sahota armed with the gun. Mistaking Segura for the homeowner and Sahota for the suspect, Feller opened fire, shooting and killing Sahota. Clark County prosecutors later declined to press criminal charges against Feller.
Testifying at the trial on Wednesday, Segura said he had "no idea" where he was going as he fled from the police that night, and didn't believe Sahota was a police officer when he confronted him in the driveway. He claimed Sahota had threatened to shoot him, which made him feel that he had to somehow get the man's gun away from him to protect himself.
He said he began swinging his pocketknife wildly, without knowing where he was aiming, but added that he did think he'd managed to strike Sahota three times before the officer let go of him. He said he then ran into the house because he saw and heard police vehicles approaching and was afraid he was going to be shot.
After Sahota was shot, Segura came back out of the house and surrendered to police in the driveway. He said during testimony that he didn't realize at the time that Sahota had been shot, and thought that he had killed him with the pocketknife. The Clark County Medical Examiner later determined that one of the three knife wounds was to the neck and would likely have been fatal without immediate medical attention, but Sahota died first from the gunshot wounds.