UPDATE: The U.S. Marshals Service has joined the hunt for suspected gunman William Carl Gardner III, Winters Police Chief Sergio Gutierrez announced this morning.
WOODLAND — The man suspected of gunning down his ex-girlfriend on a downtown Winters street Monday morning had been released from the Yolo County Jail just three days earlier, and was due to stand trial next month on charges that he stalked and threatened his alleged victim.
William Carl Gardner III, who remained at large Tuesday evening, was able to repeatedly post bail despite his history of failing to appear in court and violating the terms of his probation in a Sacramento County domestic-violence case, court records in Yolo and Sacramento counties show.
The 30-year-old Sacramento resident is now wanted on suspicion of murder, accused of firing several shots into Leslie Renne Pinkston’s car as she arrived at her Railroad Avenue workplace Monday morning. Pinkston, 32, later died of a gunshot wound to her head at the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.
Court records show Pinkston and her mother, Carla Crane, had obtained a restraining order against Gardner following the Jan. 13 stalking incident outside their Winters home, where Gardner allegedly threw a lawn chair through the house’s front window, cracked the front door and threatened the women both verbally and by text.
“I hope you die,” said one alleged text — one of about 10 Gardner purportedly sent Pinkston over a 48-hour period, according to an April 25 preliminary hearing transcript. “You’re a lie (sic), and I’ll kill your (expletives).”
Crane testified at the hearing that Gardner and her daughter had recently broken up after a three-year relationship, and that Gardner had accused Pinkston of cheating on him.
“She was fearful,” Crane said under questioning by prosecutor Deanna Hays. She recalled that Pinkston and her young daughter, then 5, hid in a locked bathroom during the violent incident.
Crane also said Gardner had smashed out the front and rear windows of Pinkston’s car, a black BMW sport-utility vehicle, apparently the same car in which the young woman was fatally shot through her driver’s-side window.
When Winters police took Gardner into custody outside Crane’s home, he was already facing felony domestic-violence charges in Sacramento County — charged with inflicting corporal injury on a cohabitant and criminal threats in connection with an August 2011 assault on another woman.
That case plodded on for more than two years, with Gardner becoming the subject of four bench warrants after he either was a no-show in court or disobeyed his probation terms, court records show.
The first warrant was issued on Sept. 7, 2011, after Gardner, who was free on a $120,000 bail bond, failed to appear for his arraignment hearing in Sacramento Superior Court. Gardner did go to court five days later to have the warrant recalled and bail reinstated.
He picked up a new case two months later after being arrested on suspicion of vehicle theft and vandalism, though online court records indicate those charges ultimately were dismissed.
Gardner failed to appear in court a second time on Feb. 21 of this year, leading to a second bench warrant and a bail increase to $240,500, court records show. He resolved the case several weeks later with a no-contest plea to the corporal injury charge, in exchange for which he received a sentence of five years’ probation and a year in county jail.
Judge Curtis Fiorini also ordered Gardner to attend a 52-week batterer treatment program and prohibited him from possessing any dangerous or deadly weapons and ammunition, among other terms of probation.
While it’s unclear how much jail time Gardner actually served — court records show a surrender date of June 21 but no release date — he appears to have been free as of July 11 when, according to Sacramento County Deputy Probation Officer Shiva Hazeghazam, Gardner was a no-show for a scheduled appointment with her.
In her petition for a probation violation, Hazeghazam also noted that Gardner had failed to enroll in a treatment program or keep her apprised of his current address. That led to a third bench warrant issued on Aug. 6 and recalled six days later when he appeared in court, followed by a fourth warrant issued Oct. 11 when Gardner again hadn’t shown proof of program enrollment.
That warrant was still outstanding when Gardner didn’t show up for his scheduled Oct. 15 trial date in the Yolo County case, according to court records. His attorney in that matter, Deputy Public Defender Dean Johansson, filed a notice saying Gardner “had incorrectly calendared his trial in his phone for the next day.”
Johansson’s boss, Public Defender Tracie Olson, declined to comment Tuesday.
A new hearing was set for Oct. 22 in Judge David Rosenberg’s courtroom, where Gardner was remanded into custody for the Sacramento County no-bail warrant.
Although proof of his enrollment at Evergreen Counseling was submitted to a Sacramento judge that same day, Gardner remained in Yolo County Jail custody until after work hours Friday evening, when the jail alerted a District Attorney’s Office victim-witness advocate of his release under the state’s automated VINE (Victim Information and Notification Everyday) system, Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Cabral confirmed Tuesday.
Cabral said the advocate didn’t receive the email until Monday morning, however — possibly around the same time Pinkston was fatally shot in broad daylight. It was just three weeks shy of Gardner’s trial that, had he been convicted of all charges, could have resulted in an six-year, four-month state prison sentence.
Lynnette Irlmeier, executive director of Yolo County’s Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Center, said the days leading up to trial can be a dangerous time for victims of domestic violence.
“Restraining orders are just one tool that we can use to help victims stay safe, but (they aren’t) the answer for everyone. Domestic violence is a pattern of behavior that often escalates, sometimes to murder,” Irlmeier said. “This tragedy reminds us of how far we still need to go to keep victims of domestic violence safe.”
In Yolo County, the SADVC helps domestic violence victims with programs such as shelter housing and relocation, in addition to a range of other services.
“Our hearts go out to the family, friends and community of Leslie Pinkston,” Irlmeier said. “Even in a community that is known for its safety, domestic violence does happen behind closed doors every day by abusers who seek to control their partners. Murder is often their final act of abuse.”
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene