Former Riverside County Sheriff's Deputy Claims Self Defense In Murder Trial

The public defender for a sheriff’s deputy accused of fatally shooting a man in December 2011 at a Murrieta pub told jurors Tuesday that his client was acting in self defense.

Deputy Public Defender Jeff Zimel’s claim came as part of opening statements in the trial of Dayle William Long, being held at Southwest Justice Center near Murrieta.

“The evidence will show Dayle Long fired these shots because he was in fear for his life,” Zimel said to 12 jurors and two alternate jurors as they got their first glimpse of the man whose fate they will decide.

Long, 44, faces up to 50 years to life in prison if convicted of first-degree murder and sentence-enhancing gun and great bodily injury allegations in the Dec. 21, 2011, fatal shooting of 36-year-old Samuel Vanettes of Winchester.

Zimel said Long, at the time a 10-year veteran of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, went to Spelly’s Pub & Grille the afternoon of Dec. 21, 2011 on the way back from training in San Diego. He called a retired sheriff’s lieutenant and the two met up to socialize, Zimel said.

“He did not go there intending to kill someone,” Zimel said. “Deputy Dayle Long did not murder Sam Vanettes, he killed him in self defense.”

Deputy District Attorney Burke Strunksy, the prosecutor, painted a different picture for jurors during his opening statement.

“On Dec. 21, 2011, just four days before Christmas, April Reilly watched an off-duty officer fire shots, four of them hitting her brother, killing him right in front of her,” Strunsky said. “The defendant drank...drank heavily...His bar tab had 17 different alcoholic drinks on it...he even got his police officer’s discount on that tab that he insisted upon.”

All this, Strunksy said, while Long was carrying a loaded .45-caliber handgun with back-up ammunition.

The Prosecution Sets the Scene

Strunsky showed surveillance video from that afternoon, which showed Long arrived at Spelly’s at 3:13 p.m.—4:13 p.m on the footage because the clock on the camera equipment had not been adjusted for Daylight Saving Time—with the retired lieutenant. Vanettes arrived a little more than an hour later, at 4:32 p.m., with April Reilly—her last name was Montoya at the time—her boyfriend, Danny Burnside, and her boyfriend’s friend, Chris Hull.

The footage showed Vanettes and Long playing darts together later in the evening, seemingly having a good time.

“The defendant and Sam are feet apart playing darts for hours,” Strunksy said. “They are laughing and clapping...you can see Sam at 8:49 video time, clapping and cheering. This is a fun time, a night out on the town.”

Strunksy said that about six minutes later, when Chris Hull went outside to smoke, Long’s demeanor changed while he and Vanettes were discussing the location of a certain street in Orange County.

Strunsky said that according to witness statements—Reilly and Burnside were still at the table near the darts area where everyone was sitting—the discussion about the street elevated into Vanettes drawing a diagram on a napkin.

“What you are going to hear [from witnesses] at that point is Dayle Long’s demeanor changed, and it changed drastically,” Strunksy said. “Suddenly, his personality changed.”

Strunsky said Sam asked Long why he was acting that way, and then they exchanged some obscenities.

“They go back and forth...and the defendant takes out his gun...he’s mad. He wants everybody to know he’s armed, he’s the man.

"This is a trivial argument over a street in Orange County.”

Strunksy points out that at 8:57 p.m. video time, Reilly is seen approaching the bartender, Frederick Nelms. It was later determined according to her statement that she was asking him to call 911.

“She says, ‘Hey, somebody just threatened my brother with a gun,’” Strunksy said.

During this time, Hull, having not been a witness to the argument, re-entered the building and is told by Burnside that Long had allegedly just flashed a gun.

Strunksy said Hull then started yelling at Long, at which point the off-duty deputy and others inside the bar also asked the bartender to call police.

A retired firefighter, Richard Hackett, reportedly tried to calm the men down.

There was also a couple who were on a blind date in the restaurant who will be called as witnesses in the trial, Strunksy said. All will say Vanettes, who had his hands in the air, was acting as a “peacemaker,” the deputy district attorney told jurors.

“Then there is this pause, everything went silent...some will describe it as five seconds, some as an eternity...Then the shots came,” Strunksy said.

Vanettes father, Ron Vanettes, rushed out of the courtroom as Strunsky played audio of the shots being fired.

“Six .45-caliber shots, this is a semi-automatic gun...All of these bullets at Sam. Sam is hit four times. He is hit directly through the heart, in his face, shoulder and abdomen.

“There are two additional shots...and what you are going to learn,” Strunksy told the jurors, “is that the defendant is firing the gun at Sam as he is falling to the ground. One shot ricochets up into the ceiling.”

The video footage shows drywall falling from the ceiling—and possibly gun smoke—as people inside the bar, including Reilly, run for cover into the kitchen.

“Sam lay on the floor of that bar, bleeding until he was dead...he had no weapons, nothing even close to a weapon.”

Defense: Long Was ‘Justified in Killing Sam Vanettes’

Zimel in his opening statement countered that “Long was justified in killing Sam Vanettes.”

“The circumstances led Long to believe he was in imminent danger of great bodily injury,” Zimel said, noting that as an active and current employee of the sheriff’s department at the time, he was allowed to carry a concealed weapon, “even off-duty.”

Zimel said the evidence that Long killed Vanettes is not disputed.

“You will hear [from witnesses] that they all became physically and verbally abusive toward Mr. Long,” Zimel told jurors. “You will hear that Mr. Vanettes called him an [expletive] and you will hear how that escalated...How he identified himself as a police officer and that he told the bartender to call 911. And you will hear that he did that because the situation was turning violent...You will hear how Chris Hull continued to run his mouth...how they threatened to kick his [expletive]...You will hear a 911 call and Mr. Long retreating to the door and pulling out his gun again...You will hear how Sam and his friends continued to advance upon Long.”

Zimel said jurors would also hear how Long yelled, “Get off of me!” And how Long’s hand was injured when someone tried to grab the gun from his hand.

Prosecution Calls First Witness

The trial is expected to last several weeks, the first few of which will consist of the prosecution calling its witnesses who will also be cross-examined by Long’s public defense team.

Reilly, Vanettes’ elder sister by two years, was the first to be called Tuesday. She was in tears at one point as she was asked to recall that night, parts of which she admitted were blurry for her.

She said her brother was an “outgoing and friendly guy” and that he had invited Long to play darts with them. She said she recalled Long bought them all a round of shots, but that otherwise, she and the others in her party drank beer that night.

Long and his friend were the first to approach her, she said, to ask her a question about whiskey. It was after that that Long had joined their party, she said.

“Everybody was having fun and getting along,” Reilly said. “At first we thought he was a really nice guy.”

But she said as the hours went by, Long “seemed like he was getting really, really drunk...he was slurring his words.” She said he also became antagonistic and just “wasn’t smiling anymore.”

She remembers the argument about the street in Orange County, and told those present in the courtroom that she remembered Long saying aloud to Vanettes that she “was starting to bug him.”

She said she stood up and got between Long and her brother.

“Long said something to the effect of, ‘Let’s take it outside,’” Reilly said.

That is when she saw the gun, she said, and went to the bar and asked the bartender to call 911.

She said she did not remember seeing anyone physically or verbally assault Long, though she did remember seeing Long push Hull “so hard that he fell into the bar table.”

“I told him to stay away from the him, the cops were already coming,” Reilly said. “Then I turned around and Long had the gun pointed at my brother and my brother said, ‘What are you going to do, shoot me?’"

“(Sam) was putting his hands up in a defenseless position...like he was saying, ‘I’m not trying to hurt you.’”

Then Long “just shot him a whole bunch of times,” Reilly said.

Then she ran to the kitchen and out the back door, she said.

“I was praying that he was still going to be alive.”

As she was cross-examined by the defense, Reilly said she had a difficult time recalling exactly where Long, Vanettes and Hull were standing when the shots were fired.

She said she had struggled with it when Murrieta police investigators took her to Spelly’s in an effort to have her recreate the scene.

Zimel asked her about her statements she had provided to police that night, and whether her blood alcohol level had been tested and how long after the fact.

He also asked about a civil lawsuit filed against Long that names her and other family members as plaintiffs.

“Do you think the outcome of this trial will help you in your civil trial?” Zimel asked her.

Reilly acknowledged the lawsuit but said she knew little about it except that an attorney had contacted her family.

“My family and I are wondering why he was allowed to carry a loaded gun into a bar,” Reilly said.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Angel Bermudez recessed the court for lunch during the defense’s cross-examination of Reilly. More civilian witnesses were scheduled to take the stand Tuesday afternoon. 

Lengthy Trial Ahead

Vanettes' parents as well as several family members and friends were in attendance for Tuesday's proceedings. Some came from out of town. One family member expressed how difficult it was seeing a photo of Vanettes lying on the ground, a pool of blood under him.

Due to scheduling conflicts, there will be no trial proceedings Wednesday, Strunsky told Patch.

John Hall, spokesman for the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, said it is unlikely that the trial will be finished by Thanksgiving.