WOODLAND — A man has been ordered to stand trial on charges stemming from a daylong crime spree that spanned three counties and left multiple people injured last summer.
The most serious counts against Alamar Cyril Houston include three counts of premeditated attempted murder, a crime prosecutors say he tried to carry out when he intentionally struck three bicyclists with a vehicle on South River Road near Clarksburg.
“I saw nothing that would indicate to me the driver was concerned that they had hit someone,” testified Sacramento resident Don Dumaine, whose encounter with the hit-and-run motorist occurred just before two 17-year-old boys were struck from behind. “If anything, (the car) sped up.”
Yolo Superior Court Judge David Rosenberg ruled Friday there was sufficient evidence to support 19 charges — including assault with a deadly weapon, hit and run with injury, DUI and vehicle theft — following a lengthy preliminary hearing held over a five-day period.
“I cannot ignore the cumulative acts against the bicyclists,” Rosenberg said, rejecting defense attorney Dean Johansson’s argument that prosecutors failed to prove his client harbored any intent to kill.
Houston, 39, has pleaded not guilty to the charges in his case, which had stalled for nine months after his prior attorney raised a doubt as to Houston’s mental competency to stand trial.
That matter was scheduled for its own trial when Johansson withdrew the incompetency bid last month, clearing the way for the preliminary hearing.
Through a total of 20 witnesses, prosecutors Matt De Moura and Garrett Hamilton outlined an alleged crime spree that began on the last day of June 2015, when Rodolfo Rolon discovered his Dodge pickup had been stolen from outside a restaurant in the Colusa County town of Maxwell.
The truck resurfaced later that morning on southbound Interstate 5, where motorists reported seeing it traveling erratically — even passing between two cars at times — before stalling in the center divide near Sacramento International Airport.
One driver told the California Highway Patrol she saw a light-skinned black man exit the truck, grab a backpack and run across the northbound freeway lanes toward the airport.
Moments later, employees of the airport’s Avis car rental agency watched in surprise as a man jumped into a blue Hyundai Tucson sport-utility vehicle and drove away, running stop signs as he headed toward the freeway.
That afternoon, two motorcyclists riding in separate areas of downtown Sacramento reported being confronted by a driver in a blue SUV. Michael Wheeler said the driver threatened to kill him and repeatedly swerved into his lane on I Street, while James Griffith was struck twice and knocked off his bike on North 12th Street.
The encounter with the three bicyclists occurred shortly after 6 p.m. on South River Road north of Clarksburg — a popular stretch for competitive cyclists, many of whom stayed away that June evening because of unusually hot weather.
Dumaine testified he was riding solo when a small blue SUV began “moving into me” from his left. Instinctively, Dumaine leaned into the car, then fell onto the roadway when the vehicle sped off.
A passing motorist informed Dumaine of a second collision involving the two Sacramento teens, Jonathan Jackson and Taariq Jensen.
“All he could remember was being struck from behind, being catapulted into the air,” testified CHP Officer Steven Hawkinson, who interviewed Jackson in the hospital. The boy’s bike, he added, “was just a mangled ball of metal and rubber tires. You couldn’t even tell it was a bike.”
It would be months before officers could interview Jensen, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in the collision and spent two weeks in a medically induced coma, his mother Shikha Lal-Jensen said in court. Jackson, meanwhile, was treated for a broken ankle and road rash embedded with asphalt.
Despite a badly smashed windshield, Houston reportedly continued driving north into West Sacramento, where prosecutors allege he stopped at a Walgreens store and punched a clerk in the face — though she could not identify him in a photo lineup — and stole a case of water.
It was as he drove away from the store that police spotted the damaged Hyundai and, having received a be-on-the-lookout bulletin regarding the injured bicyclists, attempted to stop the car.
Houston allegedly led police on a pursuit across the Tower Bridge into downtown Sacramento, weaving through traffic and running red lights while driving twice the speed limit at times, West Sacramento Police Officer Daniel Gill testified.
According to Gill, Houston eventually stopped the car and began running toward a crowded light-rail station, but was apprehended by a police K-9, Diesel, which Houston put into a choke hold before being handcuffed.
Hawkinson, the CHP officer, said Houston showed symptoms of being under the influence of a stimulant — sweating, shaking, grinding his teeth — although no drugs or paraphernalia were found in the stolen car or among his belongings. A blood draw taken five hours after Houston’s arrest revealed no trace of drugs or alcohol.
However, Houston reportedly admitted to a Yolo County Jail intake nurse that he smoked methamphetamine frequently, including the day of his alleged crimes. He also disclosed having no desire to harm himself or anyone else.
“Naw, I’ve already done all that,” Houston told the nurse, CHP Officer Guillermo Hernandez testified.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene