Forty-five shell casings were found near a Pasadena home where a 10-year-old boy was caught in the gunfire and shot three times on Valentine’s Day in 2021, prosecutors told a jury Tuesday, Aug. 27 during opening statements of an attempted murder trial for two defendants.
But the attorneys for the defendants, Joseph Knowles of Altadena and Tanaj Johnson of Pasadena, said video evidence of the shooting doesn’t definitively prove the men were involved and that members of their gang often swap the same clothing.
Knowles and Johnson are charged with three counts of attempted murder and one count of mayhem in the Feb. 14, 2021 shooting of the 10-year-old boy and two men. Knowles faces an additional charge of possession of a firearm by a drug addict.
Prosecutor Christopher Stogel said Knowles and Johnson drove in a silver Honda Civic on Felberg Avenue in Duarte and fired shots, striking a man outside a home in the area. Once he heard gunshots, another man opened the door of the home to check on the wounded man and was shot as well, Stogel said.
The car was then seen driving away on Ring doorbell footage that Stogel presented in court.
Later that day, around 2:57 p.m., Ring doorbell footage captured the same Honda driving in the 300 block of Parke Street in Pasadena, Stogel said.
At the time, Stogel said, the 10-year-old boy walked outside his home to check on his father, brother and a family friend, who were working on a car in the driveway. Gunfire could then be heard on the Ring footage played in court.
The boy was struck in his left wrist, right ankle and upper chest, Stogel said. His mother previously told the Pasadena Star-News the bullet had just missed the boy’s heart. He went into surgery the day of the shooting and returned from the hospital in late March to continue his recovery.
Police previously said it was unclear who was the intended target of the second shooting. Investigators located 45 shell casings from various firearms at the scene, Stogel said.
The Honda seen at both shootings was captured on surveillance footage multiple times after the shooting, Stogel said. Investigators also allegedly found Johnson’s fingerprints on one of the shell casings and located a jacket and a pair of shoes they say Knowles and Johnson wore during the shooting, respectively.
Anthony Arzili, an attorney representing Knowles, and Madeline Chang, an attorney representing Johnson, told the jury that their clients were not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Knowles may have owned a similar windbreaker to the one seen in security footage, but Arzili said there isn’t DNA proof to show the jacket was his. He emphasized that his client and Johnson are part of a gang whose members swap clothing often.
While Johnson’s fingerprints were allegedly found on a shell casing, Chang said that only proves that her client touched the bullet at some point and not that he loaded a firearm or shot it. She added that DNA from other individuals was also found on the shell casings at the scene and said a firearm from the scene was allegedly found on another person.
