Police testify about drug deal that led to fatal West Sacramento park shooting
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Prosecutors allege Miramontes shot Carter after a marijuana drug deal gone bad.
- Police used witness accounts, security camera video and license plate data to identify the suspect.
- Carter’s friend admitted that he planned to steal marijuana from the drug dealer.
Officer Juan Barrientos arrived a few months ago at a West Sacramento park to find a 16-year-old boy with a gunshot wound to the head.
Adrian Carter was barely breathing, splayed on the park’s grass in broad daylight near a small tree not far from where he and two others had met with a drug dealer.
“I couldn’t find a pulse,” the West Sacramento police officer recounted in court Wednesday while describing his body cam video from that April afternoon.
Carter was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.
On Wednesday in Yolo Superior Court, West Sacramento police investigators testified that one of Carter’s friends grabbed a bag of marijuana from the dealer without paying before gunshots rang out.
Adrek Isaac Miramontes, 19, is accused of murder in the April 30 shooting of Carter at Summerfield Park. The murder charge includes enhancements that allege Miramontes committed a premeditated murder, used a gun in the crime and fired that weapon from inside a vehicle, according to the criminal complaint filed by the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors also charged Miramontes with two counts of attempted murder in connection with the Summerfield Park shooting. The victims listed in those charges are identified as M.S. and A.J. in the complaint. The attempted murder charges include enhancements that also allege Miramontes acted with premeditation and used a gun in the crimes.
Judge will decide whether to order a trial
Miramontes, who has remained in custody at the Yolo County Jail since his May 1 arrest, has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges. He returned to court Wednesday afternoon for the beginning of his preliminary hearing.
The attorneys on both sides will have an opportunity to present evidence and testimony before Judge Daniel Wolk decides whether there is sufficient evidence for Miramontes to stand trial.
Deputy District Attorney Nicholas Spatola has told the judge that two other people, who are the attempted murder victims listed in the criminal complaint, were with Carter at the park when the shooting occurred.
At Miramontes’ May 9 arraignment hearing, the prosecutor said three gunshots were fired at that park that afternoon, and the two attempted murder victims were not injured in the shooting. Spatola told the judge that those surviving victims identified Miramontes as the homicide suspect based on his tattoos and a police photo lineup.
Mario Andrews, the attorney representing Miramontes, said at the time that the prosecutor’s statement in court was consistent with what he knows about the murder case.
Carter, a Sacramento teen, was a talented artist and avid gamer “who found joy and connection in the digital worlds he explored,” his family has written in an online fundraiser.
A West Sacramento Police Department spokesperson initially identified Miramontes as a Sacramento resident. The District Attorney’s Office has since said Miramontes is from Yuma, Arizona.
The deadly shooting was reported shortly before 2 p.m. April 30 at Summerfield Park located at 2950 Linden Road, just west of Jefferson Boulevard in West Sacramento.
Shooting suspect vehicle
On the witness stand, Barrientos said two witnesses spotted three males approach a parked vehicle near the park. The witnesses told police they then saw the same three males running from the vehicle west through the park.
One of the witnesses showed Barrientos a photo of the suspect vehicle, a gray 2016 Subaru Outback. The vehicle was also spotted on nearby security cameras.
Detective Samuel Gee testified that license plate scanners, which are placed near some traffic lights in West Sacramento, identified the suspect vehicle. He said the Subaru Outback was registered to an owner at a Corbin Way home in Rancho Cordova, where Miramontes was found the following day and taken into custody.
Carter and one of his friends, who is listed as an attempted murder victim in the complaint, had been dropped off at the park. Investigators testified that Carter’s friend had been exchanging text messages on Telegram, an encrypted social media app, with a drug dealer known as “K3” who would sell them marijuana.
Investigators testified they later used cell phone data to link Miramontes to the drug deal and the fatal shooting at the park.
Plan to steal marijuana
Gee said in court that Carter’s friend had always planned to steal the marijuana from the dealer and had told the two others about what he planned to do. The detective was asked about that detail again during cross-examination.
“That was the plan, that he intended to steal the marijuana,” Gee testified.
Carter and the two others walked up to the vehicle parked near the basketball courts at the park. There was only one person in the vehicle, a driver. The detective said Carter’s friend spotted the handle of a handgun between the driver’s right leg and the vehicle’s center console.
Gee testified that Carter’s friend then reached into the parked vehicle, grabbed a bag of marijuana and ran away with the two others following. He told the detective he heard gunshots as they ran. The friend turned around, spotted Carter on the ground and “saw Adrian’s brains splattered,” Gee said on the witness stand.
Miramontes is scheduled to return to court Thursday afternoon. After testimony has concluded and the attorney give their closing arguments, the judge will decide whether to order Miramontes to stand trial.
