Opening statements and the first witness testimony was delivered Monday in the trial of a man charged with the attempted murder of a San Diego police officer for allegedly shooting him during a foot pursuit in City Heights.
J.C. Blake Sartor, 32, is accused of shooting SDPD Officer James Romero in the arm on June 8, 2023, after the officer allegedly spotted Sartor in a stolen pickup truck.
Deputy District Attorney Clay Biddle told a San Diego jury that Romero tailed Sartor to the area of Ogden and Wightman streets, where the prosecutor said Sartor abandoned the truck and took off running.
Romero gave chase down a narrow alley where Biddle said Sartor turned and fired, striking Romero in the right arm. As Romero ran back down the alley away from Sartor, Biddle said Sartor fired a second shot, which struck an apartment building.
“Rather than simply pull over and face the music for a relatively low- level felony, the defendant chose instead to try and kill a pursuing San Diego police officer,” Biddle told jurors.
After the shots were fired, Biddle said Sartor got into a companion’s awaiting vehicle. The prosecutor said a search of Sartor’s cell phone showed he called that person during the time of the shooting.
Sartor was arrested about a week later and at the time was found with a bag containing an unserialized “ghost gun” that Biddle alleged was used in the shooting. Biddle said a firearms expert was expected to testify that the gun was linked to two casings found at the shooting scene.
The prosecutor also said Sartor’s DNA was discovered on multiple items found within the stolen truck, including the truck’s key, a knife and a face mask.
After Sartor’s arrest, Biddle said he was placed in a jail cell with a confidential informant. The prosecutor said Sartor admitted to the informant that he fired on the officer, stating at one point, “If I could take it back, I would’ve stayed right there, but I didn’t. Finished that (expletive) off.”
Sartor’s defense attorney, Loyst Fletcher, said that neither the officer’s body worn camera, nor other cameras in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred definitively captured an image of the gunman.
Fletcher also said the questions posed to Sartor in jail by the informant were akin to “a challenge” designed to show whether he was deserving of respect among fellow inmates, and thus jurors should consider whether what Sartor told the informant was a reliable account.
Along with the shooting, Sartor is on trial for a 2021 East County police chase, in which prosecutors say he sped away from police in a stolen vehicle and led law enforcement officers on a pursuit spanning around 17 miles.
Sartor remains in custody without bail.
