WOODLAND — A Yolo Superior Court judge has upheld criminal charges against a man accused of severely vandalizing a woman’s car during a Picnic Day street gathering in Davis.
Erick William Davies, 22, will stand trial for felony vandalism and inciting a riot, a misdemeanor, Judge Janene Beronio ruled after presiding over Davies’ preliminary hearing Tuesday and Wednesday.
Testimony revealed that social media played a key role in identifying Davies as a suspect in the incident, which occurred on the night of April 22 as the victim drove home from work in East Davis.
Davis police Officer Richard Squibbs, who took the woman’s police report two days later, said she recalled driving in the area of East Eighth and M streets when she encountered a crowd of more than 100 people in the roadway, blocking traffic.
The woman honked her horn, and “at some point they began rocking (her car) back and forth, damaging the vehicle,” Squibbs said. A man then climbed onto the car and began jumping up and down, yelling “f— your car” and “bang that sh–.”
“She was in fear for her life,” Squibbs said. “She was terrified.”
But the woman recalled hearing a name amid the frenzy: “King Deezy.” A search of Snapchat revealed an account under that handle, on which the woman “found a couple of photos of King Deezy and a group of people damaging her car,” Squibbs said.
Squibbs said he found a second account on Twitter where “King Deezy” posted two videos of the vandalism recorded by people in the crowd that night. They showed a man bouncing on the car’s hood and “bragging about the incident.”
“I’m from California, where we hop on b—-es’ cars and go dumb,” a caption read, according to Squibbs. “Picnic Day was dope though. I’ve never had so many people recognize my music.”
The videos later were removed, but not before police took their own recording of them. Squibbs said he obtained Davies’ name through the social media accounts, and that the photographs matched up to Davies’ DMV mug shot.
Davies’ public defender, Richard Van Zandt, did not challenge the ID in his cross-examination, but instead set his sights on the value of the woman’s late-1990s model Honda Civic in a bid to reduce the felony vandalism charge to a misdemeanor.
That led to some tension in the courtroom as Van Zandt asked repeated questions regarding the car’s purchase price and pre-existing damage, triggering multiple objections from prosecutor Carolyn Palumbo as to the irrelevancy of the information.
Van Zandt said at one point that the Honda was “not worth more than a couple grand.” The threshold for a felony vandalism charge is $400.
“The issue is, what is it going to cost to fix the damage that he caused. Am I missing something?” Beronio said in sustaining the objections.
Van Zandt also disputed the nearly $7,400 damage estimate to the vehicle, suggesting in his questions that a relative of the victim owned the auto-body shop that conducted the evaluation and may have inflated the figure.
“Given Mr. Davies’ lack of a criminal record, given that this incident lasted a few seconds, a reduction to a misdemeanor is appropriate,” Van Zandt said. “Mr. Davis should not have to suffer felony consequences.”
Palumbo disagreed.
“He was enjoying the attention he was getting, and he was getting people involved in this,” she argued. Despite the short duration of the incident, “that is a long time to be in your vehicle with this going on around your car.”
Beronio declined to reduce the felony charge, upholding both counts as filed. She ordered Davies, who remains free on bail, back to court Nov. 9 for arraignment.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene