Two men and a then-17-year-old boy went to the Downey Landing Shopping Center in August 2022 looking for a car to steal, with one of the men fatally shooting an off-duty Monterey Park police officer after he refused to get out of his 2019 Dodge Charger, a prosecutor told jurors at the start of the alleged shooter’s trial Monday, Jan. 26.
Carlos Daniel Delcid, now 23, is charged with murder, shooting into an inhabited dwelling and felon in possession of a firearm for the Aug. 8, 2022 daytime shooting of 26-year-old Gardiel Solorio. He also faces a robbery charge in relation to an April 2022 incident in Long Beach where he allegedly stole a necklace and wallet from another man, prosecutors said.
Of the three defendants, Delcid is the only one to go to trial. The then-17-year-old boy, identified Monday as Christopher Sanchez, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 11 years. Last year, Gerardo Magallanes pleaded no contest to the same charge and received 24 years.
Delcid on Monday wore a white button-up shirt, thick-framed glasses, had a tattoo of the letter “R” with a crown above it near his left eye and listened as Deputy District Attorney Geoff Lewin told the panel of eight men and four women that much of the “overwhelming” evidence against him will come from his mouth as well as the mouths of his crime partners through Perkins operations – where arrestees are placed in recorded jail cells with undercover officers who try to get them to talk.
The circumstances surrounding the shooting were also caught on surveillance video of the parking lot outside the LA Fitness gym and a dashcam from the car of a driver making a Lyft delivery nearby.
“All the evidence will show that on Aug. 8, 2022, Gardiel Solorio was executed,” Lewin said. “Shot five times through a car window as he prepared to work out at a gym on a Monday afternoon in Downey.”
Delcid’s attorney, Rick Sternfeld, asked the jury to be critical of the evidence before making their decision on the charges. A witness description of the suspect would not match Delcid, he said. He said he was confident the jury would find Delcid not guilty of the robbery charge.
Prosecutors identified Sanchez as the driver of a black Honda Accord seen on surveillance video just past 3:15 p.m. in the parking lot of the Downey Landing Shopping Center. Lewin said the group was “looking for a car they could use to get away from the cops.”
As Sanchez drove from one area of the parking lot to another near an LA Fitness, Solorio is seen allowing the Accord to get in front of his black Dodge Charger, but once they both get stuck behind a work truck, Solorio goes around both vehicles to get to a parking spot on the far east side of the parking lot.
The Accord follows, then makes a right turn southbound before turning back around and stopping just past Solorio’s car. Solorio did not get out of his car right away, Lewin said.
“As he’s sitting there, they are already planning what they were going to do,” Lewin said, adding that video from the dashcam appeared to show Delcid putting a facemask on in the car.
After the Accord stopped, a man identified as Delcid gets out wearing a grey hooded sweatshirt, black facemask and long pants. He approaches the driver’s side of the Charger with a handgun and in seconds, the Charger moves in reverse and five quick pops are heard on the dashcam footage.
The shooter runs back to the Accord as the Charger continues to slowly reverse, ultimately coming to rest after colliding with an SUV in the parking lot, the surveillance video shows. Sanchez, driving the accord, exits the lot and briefly goes the wrong way in traffic before cutting a vehicle off to get back on the right side of the road, video shows.
“From the time the suspect got out of the Accord to the time the suspect got back in was about 7 or 8 seconds,” Sternfeld said. “And the surveillance video doesn’t tell the whole story.”
Aside from the gunshots, no words are heard on the video from either the suspect or Solorio, Sternfeld said. A detective was expected to testify that he observed Delcid staggering and mumbling with bloodshot eyes and smelling of alcohol following his arrest.
Lewin told the jury a medical examiner would testify that three of the five shots that hit Solorio were rapidly fatal.
A witness heard the shots and saw a shooter, then attempted CPR on Solorio until police arrived about 10 minutes later. But Sternfeld said the witness described the shooter as a Black man wearing a black hoodie, which didn’t completely match Delcid.
Still, officers were able to see the license plate of the Accord on the dashcam and found it was registered to a home in Long Beach. Officers surveilled the home until the car returned about 8:30 to 9 p.m. and they arrested three people inside, including Delcid and Sanchez. In the car, which belonged to Sanchez’s sister, officers found the gray hoodie and black facemask worn by the shooter, as well as gun magazines, alcohol, marijuana and a NOS tank, or laughing gas.
The third person in the car was also taken into custody, but was released after investigators learned he was picked up by Sanchez after the shooting had occurred.
At one point Monday, Delcid appeared to chuckle while watching body-worn video of an officer asking for his name as he lay in an ambulance, after which Delcid replied “Do your (expletive) job, (expletive).”
Magallanes was arrested three days later, Lewin said. Much of the audio from the Perkins operations played during opening statements came from Magallanes, who allegedly told the undercover officers they wanted to steal a car and “go ride.”
Magallanes would also admit to giving Delcid the gun before the shooting.
Gardiel Solorio had been hired by the Monterey Park Police Department in January, 2022, eight months before he was killed. He was weeks into a field-training program when the shooting occurred.
Solorio’s older brother, Carlos, whom he shared a room with in their Bell Gardens home, testified Monday that there was no reason to believe Gardiel Solorio was in any danger as he left the house to go to the gym.
“He was a very liked person,” Carlos Solorio said of Gardiel, adding that he would make friends anywhere he went. “He would run around the block and people would often ask me about him.”