The teen victims of a drive-by shooting in Mill Valley earlier in April testified Tuesday in Marin Superior Court at the outset of a preliminary hearing for Max Wade, the 18-year-old alleged shooter who is also in March 2011.
Landon Wahlstrom, 19, and Eva Dedier, 18, were the first witnesses called by Deputy District Attorney Yvette Martinez. Wade is accused of driving up on a motorcycle and shooting at the teens on April 13 as they sat Dodge pickup truck outside a home on Evergreen and Ethel avenues.
The motorcyclist, dressed in black with his face shielded by a black helmet with a dark-tinted visor, "reached frantically for a gun" and drew a revolver on the couple, the first shot shattering the glass as they ducked for safety, according to Wahlstrom.
"I looked down the barrel, ducked, and the bullets started flying," Wahlstrom said.
The shooter shot the gun five times before fleeing, he said. Both Wahlstrom and Dedier sustained minor injuries from broken glass but declined medical attention.
Wahlstrom, who said he was “fairly familiar” with firearms, described the gun as a revolver with a short barrel, woodgrain handle and matte finish. When shown a photo from evidence of a revolver retrieved during the investigation, he said it was identical to the one he saw during the shooting. He also identified the clothing Wade was allegedly wearing during the incident and the motorcycle.
Wade and Wahlstrom both attended Redwood High School in Larkspur, but Wahlstrom said they had not had contact since middle school about seven years before the incident.
Defense attorney Charles Dresow questioned Wahlstrom about a road rage incident he was involved in several days prior to the April 13 shooting, where Wahlstrom smoked his exhaust and shined his high beams at a car that cut him off while heading to his home on Evergreen. The incident could show that there might be other people with a motive to attack the 19-year-old, Dresow told the judge.
Wade is also charged with burglary, vehicle theft and two counts of possession of stolen property in connection with the alleged theft of Fieri's $200,000 bright yellow 2008 Lamborghini Spyder Gallardo - complete with a “GUYTORO” vanity plate.
In the heist, which occurred on March 8, 2011, the thief rappelled down from the roof of British Motor Car Distributors dealership on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco, entered through a window, then drove away in the car, according to San Francisco police.
Detectives found the Lamborghini in the Richmond storage unit near where they arrested Wade on April 29. Investigators trailed Wade after he texted Dedier three days after the shooting about whether she wanted to pick up her fake ID, asking her if she wanted him to pick her up in the Lamborghini.
Investigators said the storage unit also contained fake ID cards for California, Florida and New York, local police scanner coordinates, cellphone-jamming equipment, a dismantled AKA-47 assault weapon, a shotgun, and a full San Francisco Police Department uniform with a badge and duty belt.
Dedier, who was sitting in the passenger seat in the pickup truck at the time of the April 13 shooting, testified that she saw Wade in the Lamborghini two times when he was supplying her with fake drivers’ licenses. She was dating Wahlstrom at the time of the shooting, and described Wade as “friendly” in their meetings leading up to the attack.
Dedier mentioned her relationship with Wahlstrom to Wade five months before the shooting, and said he didn’t show much of a reaction. “It was nothing weird. It was just who I was dating,” she said. Dedier indicated that Wade was unaware that she was with Wahlstrom at the time of the shooting. Investigators had previously indicated that Dedier had rebuffed Wade's romantic advances and that his beef with Wahlstrom began on Facebook.
In the weeks after Wade's arrest, the case took on an even more sensational nature when a pair of Marin rappers released a song and music video as a tribute to Wade. In the early morning hours of August 10, the day he turned 18 and was set to be transferred out of Juvenile Hall, Wade apparently was the target of an attempted break-in to free him.
He was transferred to Marin County Jail later that day and remains in custody on $2 million bail. Wade plead not guilty to the charges in June. The preliminary hearing is expected to last three days.
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