OAKLAND — Haloti Lauese showed no emotion Thursday as a jury convicted him for attempting to murder two East Bay police officers, a verdict that could lock him away for the next 20 years.
After deliberating for a day, the jury of 12 found Lauese, 26, of East Palo Alto, guilty of two counts of attempted murder of Fremont police Detective Jeff Lawrence and Newark Officer Jeff Saunders. The jury acquitted Lauese of a third count of attempted murder of Newark Officer Lisa Schwerin.
Following a home invasion robbery in Fremont on April 29, 2015, Lauese and two other men led police on a chase across the Dumbarton Bridge into a business park in Menlo Park, where he shot at the officers while trying to run away.
“He put the lives of these police officers in grave danger, and we’re pleased the jury recognized that,” Alameda County Deputy District Attorney John Brouhard said outside the courtroom after the verdict.
Lauese’s attorney, Stephen Avila, had argued that his client was just trying to escape and didn’t intend to kill the officers.
But the prosecution argued that Newark officers Saunders and Schwerin were inside a patrol car getting ready to chase Lauese when he got out of his vehicle, took a couple of steps, turned around and shot at them. A bullet hit the driver’s side of the patrol car, inches away from Saunders. During the trial, Schwerin testified she feared for her life and ducked.
“Boom, boom, boom!” Brouhard said in his closing arguments, pointing the gun used in the crime toward the back of the courtroom, his voice echoing.
Seconds later while being chased by Lawrence, Lauese shot at him twice. The officers subsequently ran him and the other two men down and eventually arrested them after an extensive search.
None of the three officers was injured in the shooting.
Although the jury found Lauese guilty of willful premeditation for the attempted murder of Lawrence, it deadlocked over the same allegation regarding Saunders.
The jury also found Lauese guilty of three counts of assault on a peace officer and two counts of robbery in concert for the home invasion, where a laptop, cash, gold necklace and marijuana were stolen. He was acquitted of a third charge of robbery in concert.
Lauese could face life in prison for his charges, but because of the the state’s youthful offender law pertaining to people who commit crimes when younger than 25, he will be eligible for parole in 20 years.
The two other men in the car who participated in the home invasion took plea deals. Demetrius Crayton and Shawn Oceola Thomas were accused of holding people at gunpoint in the Fremont apartment on the 39800 block of Fremont Boulevard that day. Thomas pleaded no contest to robbery with special use of a firearm and Crayton pleaded guilty to one count of home invasion robbery in concert, with personal use of a firearm.
Lauese will be sentenced Jan. 11 by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Thomas Reardon.