SAN DIEGO COURTS
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Nathaniel Gann and his sister calculated the slaying of their stepfather down to the last detail, a prosecutor told jurors during closing arguments yesterday.
From buying black clothing to putting in a phony 911 call to police, the siblings orchestrated a fake home-invasion robbery to disguise the killing, said Deputy District Attorney George Bennett.
Jurors began deliberating yesterday afternoon and must decide whether Gann, 20, is guilty of murder with a special-circumstance allegation of lying in wait.
Gann is accused of firing four shots at his stepfather, attorney Timothy MacNeil, including a fatal shot to the back of the head, on July 19, 2007.
“That was no accident. It was not spontaneous, not rash,” Bennett said in San Diego Superior Court.
Bennett told the jury that Gann's DNA was found on a ski mask discovered in a nearby tree, and that neighbors saw a man matching Gann's description running from the house after the shooting. The prosecutor said Gann ran to his pickup and drove back to his grandmother's house in Arizona, where he was arrested hours later.
The prosecution also pointed to the testimony of Charles Goodman, a man who shared a jail cell with Gann in Arizona. Gann reportedly confessed his role in the slaying to Goodman before being extradited to San Diego.
“What he told Mr. Goodman matched up with the evidence,” Bennett said. “He has no way of knowing unless it was related to him by the person who killed Timothy MacNeil.”
But Gann's defense attorney, Ricardo Garcia, warned the jury about believing anything Goodman said, calling the convicted felon a liar and mentally ill.
Garcia, of the Alternate Public Defender's Office, also questioned the physical evidence in the case, and on several occasions he accused investigators of sloppy police work.
He said no gunshot residue was found on Gann's hands, no fingerprints were found on the gun and nothing in Gann's pickup or home linked him to the crime.
“Nathaniel Gann didn't kill Timothy MacNeil. The evidence does not prove it,” Garcia said. “It's not part of his character or his nature, and that alone is enough. He had no motive; he had no reason to do it.”
Garcia argued that Gann's sister, Brae Hansen, was the mastermind and sole suspect. Hansen, who is accused of pretending to be the victim during the fake robbery, is set go to trial in January.
Kristina Davis: (619) 542-4591; kristina.davis@uniontrib.com
