The PSAT Tip Compendium

Closing arguments began Thursday in the trial of an Antioch man accused of murdering his friend and shooting at police during a 2009 Humboldt County car chase.

Defendant Brian Cole Fiore, 22, sat hunched in a gray pinstripe suit beside his attorney Thursday as the prosecutor delivered his closing statements. Fiore’s eyes rarely left the table or the notes being taken by his attorney.

Prosecuting Deputy District Attorney Allan Dollison said the trial — ongoing since April 9 — has involved more than 200 items of evidence.

”this has been a very serious case,” Dollison said.

Fiore is accused of robbing three men of about 14 pounds of marijuana at gunpoint in McKinleyville on May 11, 2009, with his 21-year-old friend David Fields of Humboldt. the pair ended up leading police on a 20-mile high-speed chase on State Route 299. it ended when Fiore’s Jeep Grand Cherokee went over a spike strip and rolled down an embankment. both men were found with gunshot wounds to the head. Fields was pronounced dead at the crash site.

In his closing statements, Dollison maintained his argument that Fiore knew about the impending robbery, wore body armor in preparation for the event, shot a .45-caliber handgun at a California Highway Patrol vehicle and shot Fields in the head before shooting himself under the chin in an attempt at suicide.

Dollison said Fields had his fair share of wrongdoing in the case but didn’t deserve to be murdered by Fiore.

”the defendant played judge, jury and executioner,” Dollison said as he pointed at Fiore.

Witnesses at the McKinleyville home testified during the trial that Fiore wielded a .45-caliber pistol during the robbery while Fields brandished an AK-47 rifle. in prior testimony, Fiore stated he didn’t have a gun and didn’t know what Fields had planned that night.

Fiore had on body armor under his clothes that day, and he testified that he’d worn it during other drug transactions.

”it shows prior planning, design. Knowledge of what was about to happen,” Dollison said.

Fiore testified that he never saw Fields leave the home, but that Fields returned with an AK-47 and ordered people on the floor. Fiore said he was stunned, but he didn’t get on the ground. instead, he grabbed the marijuana, as instructed by Fields, and carried it to his Jeep.

Dollison said Fiore could have taken off or questioned Fields.

”if you are surprised with someone threatening you with an AK-47, and you don’t get down, I’m sorry — you’re in on it,” Dollison said. “He played along because this was going to be a big score.”

Dollison said Fiore could’ve slammed on the brakes when deputies with the sheriff’s office began pursuing him.

”He had a gun on him and stolen marijuana. it was all the motivation he needed not to stop,” Dollison said.

Fiore previously testified that he wanted to stop, but Fields threatened him by placing the .45-caliber pistol to his temple and demanded he keep driving. He testified that he told Fields he’d take him wherever he wanted to go, but that when all was said and done, their three-month friendship was over.

Fiore’s attorney Marek Reavis has argued, using Fiore’s testimony, that it was Fields who shot at deputies. Fiore testified that Fields shot out the Jeep’s rear window and continued to fire from the vehicle’s back seat. He said Fields had both the AK-47 and .45-caliber pistol.

Dollison argued Thursday that Fields fired the AK-47 at all times from the front passenger seat, citing law enforcement testimony that they could see the muzzle flash when he leaned out the window. He said these same officials testified that the vehicle’s rear window wasn’t shot out and that they couldn’t see through the Jeep’s tinted glass. He said it was ultimately Fields’ lifeless body rolling around the vehicle as it went over the embankment that broke the back window.

Dollison maintains that it was Fields who used the .45-caliber pistol to shoot out the driver’s side window at a CHP vehicle parked in front of them.

”if David Fields is in the passenger seat firing the AK-47, there’s no way he could place his right hand out the driver’s side window to put a bullet into a CHP vehicle,” Dollison said, adding that the AK-47 was fired only seconds before.

Dollison said that once Fiore’s vehicle hit the spike strip, Fiore shot Fields in the head and then shot himself under the chin using the .45-caliber pistol. He held up autopsy photos of Fields’ head, showing that a bullet entered Fields’ left temple and exited the right side of his head. He said Fields was right-handed and couldn’t have shot himself with the AK-47.

Fiore testified that he didn’t shoot Fields but doesn’t remember shooting himself. He said he remembers seeing the pistol on the vehicle’s back seat and telling himself that he’d rather kill himself than allow Fields to kill him. He testified that it was his way of taking back control of his life.

Dollison said it seems odd that Fiore wouldn’t remember these details, as he remembers doing cocaine earlier in the day, smoking marijuana throughout the day and stopping off at various locations while on his way to Humboldt.

”His memory is good,” Dollison said. “yet he has no memory of shooting himself or how David Fields got shot.”

Reavis began his closing arguments Thursday and said the reason Fiore doesn’t remember shooting himself is that he underwent extreme emotional and physical trauma. He said a doctor testified that this type of gunshot trauma could inhibit Fiore’s ability at the time to process short-term memories into permanent ones.

Fiore’s story has not changed, Reavis said, since he crawled up the embankment and surrendered himself to law enforcement. He said Fiore told deputies as he was put into an ambulance that Fields shot himself with the AK-47.

”do you think at that time he’s concocting a story?” Reavis said. “we don’t know what weapon killed David Fields.”

Reavis said some of the law enforcement officials have faulty memories of that night’s events. He also said some of the testimony by witnesses was skewed to fit an agenda, to implicate Fiore in a murder.

”I believe their testimony is sincere, but it’s inaccurate,” Reavis said about law enforcement.

He said the coroner’s office changed Fields’ death certificate to state his death was a homicide a few months after it was issued. He said it was changed after one of the deputy coroners talked with law enforcement officials and that this skewed the office’s objectivity.

Additionally, Reavis said most of the turns on State Route 299 are to the left, so there’s no way Fields could be hanging out the passenger side window shooting at pursuing vehicles. He maintains Fields was shooting out of the back window, as Fiore testified. He said no glass from the back window of the Jeep was found at the crash scene, indicating it had been shot out prior.

Reavis was unable to finish his closing arguments Thursday and will continue today. once he’s finished, Dollison will have one last opportunity to try to argue Fiore’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Fiore faces 14 counts, including murder, armed robbery, felony evasion of a peace officer, transporting marijuana, illegally possessing an assault weapon and the attempted murder of five peace officers. He’s been in the Humboldt County jail on $1 million bail since his arrest and faces life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted in the case.

Megan Hansen can be reached at 441-0511 or .

<a href="http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_20653005/closing-arguments-begin-murder-trial-from-09-cartag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_20653005/closing-arguments-begin-murder-trial-from-09-carFri, 18 May 2012 09:25:50 GMT”>Closing arguments begin in murder trial from ’09 car chase with police; prosecution maintains Fiore shot friend, then himself