By Khalida Sarwari
Editors please note: The fifth, ninth and 12th grafs of this story contain language some readers may find offensive.
The man accused of killing 27-year-old Philip Lacy during a robbery in downtown Palo Alto in 2008 testified in court today he did not rob or deliberately shoot the victim.
Otto Emil Koloto, a 23-year-old Gilroy man, has been charged with murder for the death of Lacy, a South San Francisco resident, on the early morning of July 13, 2008, near City Hall. Koloto also faces an enhancement for use of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
Appearing clean-shaven and wearing a dark blue dress shirt, Koloto took the stand for the first time since the trial began Monday to tell his side of the story.
He admitted to owning and carrying a 9mm semi-automatic handgun for protection and that he was involved in an altercation with Lacy and his friends on Bryant Street. Koloto even confessed to fatally shooting Lacy, but said it was an accident and that Lacy had provoked him to reach for the gun by attacking him.
Prosecutor Matt Braker alleges Koloto approached Lacy and a group of his friends as they were piling into a gold Lexus and asked for a cigarette. As Lacy handed him the cigarette, Koloto ordered him to “Give me your chain, bitch,” referring to Lacy’s gold chain necklace with a
diamond-encrusted cross, according to Braker. Braker claims when Lacy lunged at him, Koloto delivered a fatal bullet to his forehead.
Koloto, however, said he and his friend Donald Lee had just exited the Civic Center Parking Garage early that morning after an unsuccessful attempt at getting into the Blue Chalk Cafe earlier. He said they had exited onto Bryant Street where he told Lee to pull over so that he could relieve himself.
That’s when Lacy and his friends caught his attention about 50 feet away, Koloto testified. He said he decided to approach and greet the group because he thought they were calling out to him and he figured they could be some of his friends.
Koloto said he didn’t recognize any of the guys, but one of them – Lacy – asked him if he wanted to buy drugs from him.
“He asked me if I wanted to buy some shit,” Koloto testified. “I told him ‘I don’t do that, why do you assume I do?'”
Koloto said his refusal seemed to agitate Lacy. Before leaving, he said he asked the group for a cigarette, though he was not a consistent smoker. Faramarz Maleki, one of Lacy’s friends sitting in the driver’s seat of the Lexus, lit and passed back a cigarette to Lacy, but Lacy wouldn’t give him the cigarette, Koloto said.
“I told him, ‘What’s up, you’re not going to give me a cigarette and act like a punk?,'” Koloto testified.
Koloto said Lacy responded by threatening to “kick his ass,” and taking off his chain as he was getting out of the car. Koloto said to scare Lacy, he pulled out his gun from the front pocket of his sweatshirt and slid the barrel.
“I pointed the gun back at him and said ‘you don’t want to do that,'” Koloto testified.
Koloto claimed Lacy paused for a moment, glanced at his friends in the car, and then lunged at him. He said Lacy’s chain, still in his hands, got caught in Koloto’s sweatshirt as Lacy shoved him. Koloto said that’s when the gun went off.
“When the gun went off, I didn’t know what happened,” he said. Afterward, he said he stood there for a second, but “I was shocked and lost. Then I just ran.”
Koloto said he mindlessly stuffed the gun and the chain in his sweatshirt pocket and ran back to Lee’s white Toyota Yaris. He said he didn’t tell either Lee or a backseat passenger what had just occurred.
Koloto said they next drove to a party at a warehouse on Pulgas Avenue in East Palo Alto, where he continued to keep quiet about the shooting. Contrary to Lee’s testimony Wednesday that Koloto had told him at the warehouse that he had “popped someone,” Koloto testified he didn’t tell a soul about the shooting until later that morning.
He said when someone at the warehouse announced there had been a murder in downtown Palo Alto, he was “terrified.”
Koloto said he and Lee went to his cousin’s house to sleep. When he awoke a few hours later, he said he was still in shock.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do,” he said. “I was lost.”
Koloto said he finally confided to his cousin about the shooting and his cousin helped him cut off his shoulder-length hair.
“I knew the police were looking for me,” he said. “I was reading the papers and they said there was a robbery. There was no robbery and I knew they weren’t going to believe my story over five people.”
A friend then came by to pick him up and drove him to Stockton, where Koloto said he spent the next three months hiding at a friend’s home. On Oct. 2, 2008, police caught up with Koloto in San Jose, where he had been staying with another friend, and took him into custody.
During cross-examination, Braker questioned the veracity of Koloto’s assertion that Lacy had tried to sell him drugs. Braker said Koloto had not mentioned this part of the story to anyone before a police report was released stating Lacy had cocaine in his pocket.
He also asked Koloto why he was carrying a gun with him to the homes of his friend and cousin.
Braker claimed Koloto had seen Lacy and his group of friends several times prior to the altercation that provoked the shooting, suggesting that Koloto had planned to rob Lacy.
Testimonies were also heard today from Palo Alto police investigators, some who were recalled by defense attorney Andy Gutierrez, particularly to discuss a packet of cocaine and nearly $300 in cash they recovered in Lacy’s pocket. Gutierrez also questioned Halle Weingarten, a
forensic toxicologist, about the effects of drugs and alcohol on the nervous system.
Lacy’s brother, William, was the final witness. He testified his brother had inherited a large sum of money after their father’s death in 2005. He also said Lacy’s chain held sentimental value for him.
Both the prosecution and defense rested their case, ending the evidence phase of the murder trial that began Monday.
Braker claims circumstantial evidence shows Koloto shot Lacy during a robbery.
Gutierrez, however, claims the evidence will show that the shooting was not a random and opportunistic act of violence.
The trial will resume Monday afternoon in Santa Clara County Superior Court in San Jose with closing arguments.