MARTINEZ — A Contra Costa County sheriff’s deputy testified at a coroner’s inquest hearing Tuesday that he was about to terminate a high-speed police chase on Highway 24 last year when the suspects’ car crashed, killing Lawrence Martin, a 20-year-old passenger.
Meanwhile, the manslaughter case against the suspected driver — 20-year-old Danny Lockett Jr. — appears to be at a standstill after Lockett bailed out of jail last August, only to be arrested on robbery and assault charges in San Francisco.
Testifying before a coroner’s inquest jury Tuesday, Deputy Devin Hom said he was working patrol in Orinda on the morning of July 21, when he pulled over a car for having tinted windows. He said the car, a black Nissan, also was driving “unusually slow” on the freeway.
The car appeared to comply, exiting the freeway and eventually pulling over in a safe location, Hom testified. But as the deputy approached the car, he said he heard someone yell, “Punch it!” Within seconds, the Nissan peeled away while Hom ran back to his car and began pursuing.
Hom said he followed the Nissan as it got back on Highway 24, westbound, and that he was driving 90 miles per hour but that the Nissan was still pulling away from him. He said he was getting ready to end the pursuit when he saw a plume of smoke around the corner and realized it meant there had been a crash.
Another deputy, Jason Livingston, testified he was driving in another patrol car when he heard a sergeant say over the radio to terminate the pursuit at the tunnel because there was a lot of traffic. He said within seconds of that call, he too saw a plume of smoke or dust in the distance.
A California Highway Patrol investigator estimated the car was traveling at around 107 miles per hour, but there was a margin of error on that estimate — it could have been going as low as 93 or as high as 117, he said. The speed was calculated through examining the skid marks left by the Nissan, which were “hundreds of feet long,” he testified.
Martin was thrown clear of the crash and sustained serious injuries, including deep scrapes all over his body. He died of multiple blunt force injuries later that day, but still had a pulse when deputies arrived at the crash site. Livingston said he and Hom first arrested Lockett, who was near the car, and then Livingston tried to help Martin until paramedics arrived.
“I was telling him to breathe, we’re here, help is on the way,” Livingston said.
Later in the hearing, sheriff’s Detective Charlene Jacquez testified that the debris field from the crash included laptops and cell phones that appeared to her to be stolen. When she found out Lockett was on probation for burglary and Martin had an arrest warrant for burglary in Berkeley, she suspected the laptops were taken in a burglary. Later, she linked the pair to a recent armed robbery of a San Francisco business, she testified.
Jacquez also discovered Lockett and Martin had gotten the Nissan’s windows tinted in Oakland, the day before the fatal crash. She said Lockett was identified as the driver from blood DNA in the driver’s seat and his paperwork being in the car.
There was another piece of evidence suggesting Lockett was driving: Seven minutes before he died, Martin took a video of them inside the car, where he was seated in a passenger seat, Jacquez said.
Lockett, a San Francisco resident, was later charged with vehicular manslaughter and fleeing a pursuing peace officer. In August, after being held to answer at a preliminary hearing, Lockett posted $165,000 bail.
After Lockett missed a court date in January, authorities suspected he had jumped bail, but it turned out he had a valid excuse for missing court: Three months earlier, he had been arrested in San Francisco on charges that included robbery, assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment, burglary and resting arrest, court records show. He remains in San Francisco County jail, where his next court date has been set for April.
Martin was one of five people killed in pursuits with Contra Costa County deputies last year, according to public records. On Wednesday, another coroner’s inquest will be held into the death of Louis Marsh, a San Pablo resident killed in a pursuit last August.