An Oceanside gang member who was 17-years-old when he shot and killed a police officer in 2006 could potentially walk free from prison this week after 18 years in custody due to a series of changes in state law involving juvenile offenders sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Meki Gaono, now 35, shot and killed Oceanside police Officer Dan Bessant on Dec. 20, 2006, from long range while Bessant was assisting a fellow officer with a traffic stop in a gang-plagued neighborhood. Two other juvenile members of Gaono’s gang also fired handguns, but it was the round that Gaono fired from a scoped rifle from nearly 400 feet away that killed Bessant, who was 25 and the father of a 2-month-old son.
A jury convicted Gaono in 2009 of first-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon, and Vista Superior Court Judge Runston Maino sentenced him that same year to life in prison with no possibility of parole.
But Gaono was back this week in a downtown San Diego courtroom for what is technically a Juvenile Court hearing that could result in his imminent release from custody, thanks to a series of changes in state law since Gaono was sentenced. The decision that would lead to his release will be up to San Diego Superior Court Judge Kimberlee Lagotta.
Since Gaono was sentenced in 2009, the landscape surrounding life sentences for juvenile offenders has changed dramatically. In 2010, 2012 and 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court issued rulings that limited the ability of states to sentence juveniles to life in prison without parole. While none of those rulings completely barred such sentences or directly affected Gaono, they prompted changes in some states, including California, as to whether a juvenile can be tried as an adult and sentenced to life without parole.
The changing state laws made Gaono eligible for parole and allowed him to seek a new sentencing hearing. That technically reopened his case, which subsequently made him eligible under Proposition 57 for this week’s hearing, what’s known as a juvenile transfer hearing.
Proposition 57, a wide-ranging criminal justice initiative that California voters approved in November 2016, in part stripped prosecutors of the power to directly charge juveniles as adults. Instead, the law now requires judges to hold a transfer hearing to decide if a juvenile offender should remain in the juvenile justice system or be transferred to adult court.
Because Gaono never had a transfer hearing when he was first arrested — the law did not require one at the time — he was eligible for one after his case was reopened for the new sentencing. Prosecutors presented their case Monday and Tuesday arguing why Gaono was justly tried as an adult; Gaono’s attorney from the Public Defender’s Office began to present his case Wednesday for why Gaono should be transferred back to Juvenile Court.
If Lagotta decides that Juvenile Court is more appropriate for Gaono, he could be released from custody within days, since the juvenile system only deals with offenders until they’re 25. In that case, he’d be released into the community and placed on juvenile probation and supervision for a maximum of two years.
If the judge decides the juvenile justice system is not appropriate and Gaono was properly tried and sentenced as an adult, he’ll remain in custody, though he’ll still be entitled to be resentenced to a term that includes the possibility of parole.
The hearing is expected to conclude Friday. The judge could make a ruling from the bench that same day or could issue a written order at a later time.
The slain officer’s parents, Steve and Jeanne Bessant, attended the first three days of hearings this week. Steve Bessant — who in a twist of fate knew Gaono and had expelled him from El Camino High School while an assistant principal at the school before the shooting — testified about how the loss of his son has continued to affect their family. The couple is adamantly opposed to Gaono’s release.
“Meki was tried as an adult and was found guilty,” Steve told the Union-Tribune in a statement. “The death penalty was taken off the table at his trial. Had he been two months older, he would have been eligible for the death penalty. He was given a huge break.”
Outside the courtroom Tuesday, the Bessants, who still live in Oceanside, said they were filled with dread at the possibility that their son’s killer could be released and Jeanne could come face-to-face with him in their community.
“Our family’s loss remains. There is still an empty seat at the table at family dinners and gatherings,” Bessant said in his statement, parts of which he recited during his testimony. “It should be noted that our family, friends and Dan’s fellow officers and staff are not eligible for parole from this deep loss. Our life sentence of grief and loss remain.”
Bessant was shot and killed at the intersection of Arthur Avenue and Gold Drive, in the North Valley neighborhood of Oceanside, sometimes known as the “back gate” because of its proximity to an entrance to Camp Pendleton.
During both Gaono’s 2009 trial and the hearing this week, prosecutors asserted that Gaono and two fellow teenage gang members, Penifoti Taeotui and Jose Compre, drank beer and watched the traffic stop at the end of their street from afar for about 15 minutes before shooting at the officers. Prosecutors have argued the teens opened fire to make themselves and their gang look tough on the streets, and also because the gang members were upset about the city’s crackdown on gang activity and code violations at their homes.
Prosecutors alleged the two other boys fired handguns while Gaono fired seven rounds from a .22-caliber rifle outfitted with a scope from 386 feet away. The fatal round hit Bessant under his left arm just above his protective vest, prosecutors said. The rifle was later found in a shed behind Gaono’s house. After initially denying his involvement, Gaono later admitted to firing the rifle. His trial attorney argued his confession was coerced and that Gaono took the rap for other members of his gang.
This week’s hearing did not involve a question of guilt — Gaono’s attorney acknowledged Monday that his client shot and killed Bessant.
“The tragedy of what happened in this case cannot be overstated,” defense attorney Jimmy Rodriguez said. But he argued that the judge’s decision should have nothing to do with Gaono’s guilt nor the tragedy of the case.
“If violence and grief was enough, we could stop this inquiry right now. But it’s not,” Rodriguez said. Instead, he said the question Lagotta had to answer was whether Gaono is amenable to rehabilitation.
“The answer is ‘yes,’” Rodriguez said. “He has shown he has rehabilitated.”
Rodriguez argued that Gaono renounced his gang affiliation in 2009 and took a pact of non-violence in 2012. He said Gaono took those steps — which he described as both brave and dangerous, considering that he’s imprisoned with other gang members — before the state law changed and before he knew he’d ever have a chance to be freed from prison.
“Mr. Gaono has reformed himself of his own volition,” Rodriguez argued.
Deputy District Attorneys Ted Fiorito and Tom Manning, the prosecutor who handled the original case and came out of retirement in part for this hearing, focused their case this week on the crime itself. They made little argument about whether or not Gaono has been rehabilitated or reformed, except when questioning witnesses.
The prosecutors showed the judge a recent photo depicting tattoos covering both of Gaono’s arms and portions of his chest and torso. A gang expert testified that Gaono did not have these tattoos when he was first arrested and that several of them, while not explicitly gang tattoos, likely do or could represent the gang sect of which Gaono was a member.
But the gang expert did not know when Gaono received the tattoos or whether they were inked before or after he allegedly renounced the gang in July 2009.
By law, Lagotta will base her decision on five factors: the degree of criminal sophistication exhibited by Gaono; whether he can be rehabilitated prior to the expiration of the juvenile court’s jurisdiction; his previous delinquent history; the success of previous attempts by the juvenile court to rehabilitate Gaono; and the circumstances and gravity of the offense alleged.
Gaono’s co-defendant Taeotui, who was also sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, is also seeking the same hearing and the chance to be released from custody.
