By Brian Anderson
Contra Costa Newspapers

Jan. 8, 2003

OAKLAND —A defense lawyer for a man accused of killing an Alameda County deputy sheriff outside a Dublin restaurant told jurors Tuesday that a prosecutor likely has proved that his client is guilty of first-degree murder.

Deputy district attorney Jon Goodfellow also probably proved that Reuben Eliceo Vasquez, 27, Miguel Galindo Sifuentes, 23, and Hai Minh Le, 24, robbed the Outback Steakhouse on Dec. 11, 1998, attorney William Cole said.

Each is charged with murder and could face a death sentence if found guilty.

But what remains unclear, Cole said during closing arguments, is exactly what happened the night Deputy John Paul Monego, 33, was killed.

"This case could have been much different with a few twists and turns," Cole said. "You have to take a very hard, close look at the evidence and let the chips fall where they may."

The scene that night was chaotic, Cole said. Customers and employees were corralled in the back at gunpoint while a nervous robber prodded the manager to hand over that night's take, he said.

They were bumblers rather than professional robbers, Cole said. "This was not sophisticated," he told the jury. "This was not well planned. This was a completely amateur, thoughtless (robbery)."

During trial, Cole added, some eyewitnesses gave different accounts of what happened. One woman he pointed to reported being ordered to her knees while no one else heard those words.

"Try to figure out what happened here," he said, "if you can figure out what happened."

The facts become murkier, Cole told jurors, after Deputy Angela Schwab arrived on the scene. She was responding to a 911 call from the restaurant when the robbers took her hostage.

Monego, her backup, arrived seconds later. He was shot as he looked inside and fell backward into the parking lot. The shooter came out, stood over the man and finished him off, Goodfellow has said.

But that, Cole said, was debatable. "None of the wounds is consistent with that scenario. I think that once you walk through the testimony you'll find that part of the scenario not true."

Cole will continue his presentation today.