Gary Wenkle Smith
Attorney at Law

Trial Victories

Deliberating A Single Day, Jury Acquits Fletchner On All Counts

V I C T O RV I L L E — Friday, August 19, 2011

Dennis L. Flechtner was acquitted of murder in the 2009 shooting deaths of three people, three days after he took the witness stand to testify in his own defense. Flechtner's straight-forward account of what occurred the night of October 4, 2009 had far greater resonance with the jury than did the testimony of the prosecution's star witness, Whitney Telliano. Telliano, the lone surviving witness to the shooting other than Flechtner, had accompanied the deceased, Angela Leird, Adam Owen and Robert Light, to Flechtner's residence in Phelan that fateful night.

And while Dennis Flechtner held up under the cross examination of prosecutor Robert Brown, Telliano fared less well under questioning by defense attorney Gary Wenkle Smith.

In large part, the district attorney's office had moved ahead with the prosecution of Flechtner based on what it presumed was the strength of information that Telliano had provided the Sheriff's department and District Attorney's office investigators in the immediate aftermath of the shooting. Once on the witness stand, however, she provided testimony that in many respects appeared to vindicate rather than implicate the defendant, even before Smith's cross-examination began.

And when Smith cross-examined her, Telliano admitted lying and exaggerating in her initial accounts to investigators and minimizing the self-defense aspect of what had occurred because she knew if she spoke truthfully that Flechtner, who had remained in custody for more than 21 months until his acquittal, would be let go.

Telliano testified she had previously lied to sheriff's investigators. She testified that she saw the 41-year-old 6'2 1/2'', 337-pound Owen and 41-year-old 6'1", 376-pound Light smoke speed prior to their block-and-a-half sojourn on foot from Leird's home to Flechtner's on the night of October 4, 2009. As they made their way to Flechtner's place, Telliano said, there was continual talk of how Owen and Light were going to, in her words, "kick his [Flechtner's] ass" and that they were going to "f**k him up." Telliano, who was not shot, did not come onto Flechtner's property. All three of the deceased were found by authorities in the dirt roadway off of Flechtner's property, a circumstance that led investigators and prosecutors to theorize, at least early on, that Flechtner had ambushed them in the street. But forensic evidence presented at trial showed a trail of Owen and Light's blood leading from Flechtner's property and down his driveway into the street where their bodies were found huddled with Leird's. Leird's blood was not found on Flechtner's property, but she was wearing several layers of heavier clothing than her two male companions, which an expert witness testified would have absorbed her blood and prevented it from dripping onto Flechtner's property as she stumbled away and out to the street where she collapsed.

Telliano, under cross-examination, placed Leird, who was determined by a coroner's examination to be under the influence of alcohol and Fentanyl at the time of her death, on Flechtner's property, along with Owen and Light. Smith utilized Telliano's testimony and physical evidence to show that Leird, Owen and Light approached Flechtner, who was standing on his own property, from his left, center and right, with Light seeking to draw Flechtner's attention so Owen could blindside him.

According to Telliano, Owen picked up a rock at one point. The rock was found in his pocket after he died. Telliano said that all three of the deceased were closing in on Flechtner just prior to the shooting and both Owen and Light had "grabbed" Flechtner in the seconds before the shots rang out.

Flechtner, who was 55 years old at the time of the shooting and had undergone a spinal fusion that limited his mobility, testified that Owen had grabbed him by his hair. There was stripling around Owen's gunshot wound, indicating he had been shot at a distance of around five inches.

Coroner's evidence showed Owen and Light had methamphetamine in their systems at the time of their deaths. Flechtner testified to six separate threats made by Owen against him, two of which were captured on video.

Smith arranged for the jury to view both videos. The second video captured Owen threatening to rape both Flechtner and his daughter.

The animus of the deceased toward Flechtner appeared to stem from an incident that occurred nearly a decade prior to the shootings. Until 1999, Flechtner and Leird, whose residential properties are located on adjoining streets in the rustic Phelan area and share a common property line at the back end of their respective lots, had been on amiable terms. Leird was previously in a dating/live-in relationship with Rusty Jones. Flechtner had met and befriended Jones through his acquaintance with Angela Leird. Leird and Jones' relationship ended when Leird's daughter, Chelsea, accused Jones of molesting her. The mother and daughter approached authorities and Jones was arrested and subsequently charged by the District Attorney's office, but the case was later dismissed. Flechtner expressed skepticism about the accusations and maintained his friendship with Jones. This antagonized Leird, and her relationship with Flechtner sharply deteriorated. The property line between their lots became a matter of an escalating dispute and five years ago, Flechtner, claiming Leird's fence intruded into his property, erected a 10-foot-high barricade between their yards.

At Flechtner's trial, Chelsea Leird testified that Jones had indeed molested her, but she made clear that Flechtner had not taken part in those molestations and had never touched her. Nevertheless, Leird's daughter testified, her mother had grown to hate Flechtner because he had sided with Jones in the dispute over the molestation.

Flechtner testified that the shooting was the manifestation of his "worst nightmare." Prosecutor Robert Brown did not reconstruct the crime scene. Nevertheless, he told the jury that Flechtner had lured Leird, Light and Owen over to his residence that night so he could lie in wait and pull a sneak attack on them.

Over multiple objections from the prosecution, Smith put on an expert witness, licensed crime scene reconstructionist Bryan Burnett. Burnett who provided crucial, uncontested testimony with regard to where Flechtner, Leird, Owen and Light were standing when the shooting occurred. Flechtner was charged with three counts of murder and lying in wait, a special circumstance that would have made him eligible for the death penalty.

The jury was given three options on the murder charges: First or second degree murder or a finding that Flechtner was not guilty and that what occurred was justifiable homicide in the furtherance of self-defense. According to a survey of the jurors afterward, some members of the panel were troubled by the consideration that one of those killed was a woman. After deliberations on Thursday, August 18, the jury retired for the evening and returned on Friday August 19, to register acquittals on all charges. Flechtner left the courtroom a free man for the first time in nearly two years.

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I have also tried several cases that hung in favor of the defense. For example, in the case of John W., a murder case, the jury returned hung 10 to 2 for not guilty. Upon setting the case for retrial, and after some negotiations where the Judge suggested that there was no reason to proceed with a vote so much in favor of the defense, and without new evidence, the prosecutor offered a voluntary manslaughter charge, with a low term prison sentence. My client insisted on taking the offer, and spent less than 6 months in prison.

Also, the case of Davin R., alleging kidnapping, carjacking, attempted murder and attempted rape, was a retrial from a hung jury with other counsel, with a vote 11 to 1 for guilty. I retried the case, and the jury hung 8 to 4 for not guilty. Upon the first day of the third trial, the prosecutor moved to dismiss the case, which was granted.

In addition, I have had literally hundreds of cases dismissed over the years by way of meritorious motions, or by pressing cases to trial, and having the prosecutor agree to dismiss, including a murder case. Of particular note is the "On Ice" case.

I am in trial most often in the Inland Empire, in state court, but I have tried cases in Federal Court as well, including civil rights cases.

I am very selective about civil rights cases, as the governmental entities hire outside law firms to defend them, and they have essentially unlimited funds to defend these cases, and can make it too expensive for anyone to prosecute these claims, unless they are exceptional cases.

I have worked hard to get many people into Drug Court, many times resulting in their convictions being reduced to "wobblers" [i.e. either a felony or misdemeanor], and thereafter reduced to a misdemeanor and dismissed, thereby allowing my clients to say they have never been convicted of a felony.