MURRIETA, Calif. (KESQ) – A man accused of ambushing and killing a 30-year-old Riverside County sheriff’s deputy responding to a domestic violence call is pretending to be mentally incapacitated for his own benefit, a prosecutor said today, while the man’s attorney suggested he’s been damaged by bullet fragments still in his head.
“The defendant is trying to manipulate the justice system,” Deputy District Attorney Marcus Garrett said in his opening statement of the mental competency trial of 45-year-old Jesse Ceazar Navarro of Lake Elsinore.
A jury was seated last week at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta to hear evidence in the case, which is focused on whether the defendant is mentally fit to stand trial for murder of a peace officer, attempted murder of a peace officer, special circumstance allegations of0 killing a law enforcement official and lying in wait, as well as sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations, for the January 2023 death of Deputy Darnell Calhoun…