A Lincoln man is facing five years in state prison after admitting to his role in a roadside altercation during which he was shot by a California Highway Patrol officer.
Heath Austin Nunes, 38, pleaded no contest Wednesday to a felony count of resisting an officer while armed with a firearm and participating in criminal street-gang activity, as well as carrying a loaded and concealed firearm not registered to him, according to Yolo County Deputy District Attorney Carolyn Palumbo.
Palumbo declined to comment further. A sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 6 before Yolo Superior Court Judge Paul Richardson.
Nunes’ attorney, Linda Parisi, called the agreement a “fair compromise,” noting that in exchange for the plea, prosecutors dismissed charges alleging that her client assaulted the five CHP officers who responded to the scene.
“The resolution to felony resisting arrest more accurately reflects what happened that night, as opposed to any assaultive behavior by Mr. Nunes,” Parisi said. She also claimed that an allegation that Nunes reached for a gun in his car before he was shot “was not supported by the evidence.”
Nunes originally faced nearly two dozen criminal counts in connection with the Aug. 18, 2014, incident on Interstate 5 in Woodland, where CHP officers made contact with him in his parked car. The charges included allegations that he was participating in criminal street gang activity with members of the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club at the time officers encountered him.
According to a CHP report about the incident, Nunes appeared to be having an argument with a Hells Angels member on the roadside when an officer approached them shortly before 11:30 p.m.
The motorcyclist identified Nunes as being with him before asking to leave the scene, according to the officer’s report. Nunes, meanwhile, had returned to his car, from which the officer could detect the smell of alcohol.
Nunes denied drinking that evening and refused officers’ orders to exit his car, saying he “didn’t feel safe” but was willing to take a Breathalyzer test, the report says. However, Nunes also declined to move to the passenger side of his vehicle so the officer could administer the test away from freeway traffic.
The repeated refusals led to Nunes’ arrest for allegedly resisting and obstructing officers, five of whom were on scene by the time they attempted to forcibly remove Nunes from the car.
As one officer opened the driver’s-side door and grabbed Nunes’ left arm, “I could see a small handgun under Nunes’ right thigh,” the reporting officer wrote. “At this time Nunes’ right hand came down and was moving for the pistol.”
At that point, another officer drew his service weapon and fired two shots at Nunes, who was hospitalized for the abdominal wounds before being booked at the Yolo County Jail, where he has been held in lieu of $2.5 million bail.
Officers reported finding a total of three firearms inside Nunes’ vehicle following his arrest.
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene