Jury to decide whether man is guilty of murder
Deliberations began Friday in the case against Michael Ward Bell, a Pico Boulevard mechanic who shot and killed a transient last July.
Bell, 54, a second-generation Santa Monican charged with first-degree murder, nodded solemnly to his aunt, Bea Bell, as he was ushered out of the courthouse after lawyers delivered their closing arguments.
After one hour of deliberations, jurors broke for the weekend. They will reconvene Monday morning at the Airport Courthouse near LAX, where the case is being heard by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Steven Van Sicklen.
John Raphling, Bell’s public defender, told jurors that Bell acted in self defense after being stalked by Andre Watson, a homeless man with a history of mental problems who was heavily intoxicated on the night of the shooting.
Raphling said Watson attacked Bell with a box cutter after a series of heated arguments that began when Watson made a gesture indicating he wanted to slash Bell’s throat.
“Had Mr. Bell not fired the gun, he may not have survived,” said Raphling, who told jurors Bell is still haunted by the shooting. “Had Mr. Bell not fired the gun, his throat may have been cut by that knife. Had Mr. Bell not fired the gun, he may have been the one laying bloody on that grass.
3B0,“Had Mr. Bell not shot that gun, his friends who have stood by him during this trial, may instead have been standing over his grave.”
“Had Mr. Bell not shot that gun, his friends who have stood by him during this trial may instead have been standing over his grave.” — — JOHN RAPHLING Public defender
Bell, a mechanic and engine builder who managed BT Automotive on the 2600 block of Pico Boulevard, attracted a small group of friends and colleagues to the trial that came from as far away as Connecticut to support him.
Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Mark Burnley admitted Watson was unstable but said he didn’t deserve to die. He called on jurors to find Bell guilty of first-degree murder.
Burnley said Bell made a deliberate decision to search out Watson when he could have locked himself in his office or fled to look for help.
“There are two boxes of ammunition, a loaded.357 (Magnum), a telephone, barred windows and a locked door (in the office),” Burnley said. “Mr. Bell was golden.
“When Mr. Bell walked out of that shop, he thought about life and he thought about death — and he chose death.”
The jury of eight women and four men shifted back and forth in their seats and took notes during the lawyer’s closing arguments, which concluded the seven-day trial.
Bell, the son of a former Santa Monica Police Department officer, has been in custody on $2 million bail since July 1, when the shooting occurred. On the night of the incident, Bell said Watson tried to enter his shop with a knife in his hand. When he went to lock the door but heard a noise in the garage, Bell said he panicked and grabbed his handgun from an office drawer.
He ran into the street and walked more than 100 feet down the sidewalk, toward a trash bag he believed to be Bell’s belongings. When he leaned down to inspect the bag, Bell said Watson said, “F--k, a f--king gun,” and attacked him.
Bell unleashed six rounds, hitting Watson’s hip, calf and thigh with four of them. Watson, who carried two box cutter knives in his front left pocket, died about 90 minutes later from blood loss.
More than 30 expert and eye witnesses testified in the trial.
Doctors who evaluated Watson, who had an I.Q. of 130, said he suffered from “assaultive” ideas and had been medicated for paranoia. Shortly before the incident, Watson was ordered to serve 15 days in jail for threatening two teenage girls on Santa Monica Beach with a box cutter. At the time of his death, Watson’s blood alcohol content was two or three times the legal limit to drive.
But Burnley said Bell wasn’t simply protecting himself from Watson. He said Bell took deliberate aim and methodically shot at him.
“The question you really have to ask,” Burnley said, “is ‘Did Mr. Watson deserve to die?’
“Mr. Watson had a lot of problems... but he was not a thing, remember that. He was a transient, yes. But he was not a thing.”
While the jury deliberates, Bell’s friends and family are waiting anxiously for a verdict.
Dan Hanrahan, a graphic designer from Topanga Canyon, said he speaks to Bell often by telephone.
“He’s really upset,” Hanrahan said. “He killed someone. But he’s an engine builder, not a killer.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 21, 2003. Read the original PDF.