SAN FRANCISCO — A former Contra Costa sheriff’s deputy has lost the appeal of his 2021 felony assault conviction over the killing of a man during a slow-speed police chase through Danville, court records show.
Andrew Hall, 35, was convicted of assault by the same jury that couldn’t reach a verdict on manslaughter charges in the fatal 2018 shooting of 33-year-old Laudemer Arboleda. In a 28-page decision released Friday, a three-judge panel unanimously upheld his conviction, rejecting arguments that focused on decisions by Contra Costa Judge Terri Mockler during the trial.
Hall was sentenced to six years in 2022, and remains housed at San Quentin State Prison, according to public records.
Hall argued that Mockler should have allowed an internal affairs report that cleared Hall of policy violations to be used at trial, and that she erred in drafting jury instructions before the trial’s end. The panel’s decision says that given the nature of the shooting, there was no “substantial evidence” to support the idea Hall fired in defense of others.
“Arboleda was driving through the gap toward Hall at roughly six miles per hour, while (Sgt. Chris) Martin remained inside his patrol vehicle,” the decision says. “No juror would reasonably conclude that Hall firing 10 shots at Arboleda — including shots in Martin’s general direction — was a reasonable defense against whatever little harm Martin faced from Arboleda.”
With regards to the internal report, the court ruled that Hall’s lawyers failed to prove it would have made a difference.
“Even if we assumed that Hall could have found an expert to testify along the lines of the opinions in the Sheriff Department’s report, Hall does not provide a record citation for the report — which does not appear to be in the record,” the decision says. “Nor does Hall identify any specific opinion in the report, or any policy to which Hall adhered, that would have led a juror to find a reasonable doubt as to his guilt.”
Hall shot and killed Arboleda on Nov. 3, 2018 during a slow-speed police chase that began after Arboleda ignored deputies’ attempts to pull him over. The deputies were responding to a caller who thought it was suspicious Arboleda was wandering around a neighborhood that it turned out he used to live in. Arboleda suffered from a mental illness, his family has publicly stated.
Police body and dash cameras — the main evidence used to convict Hall — show Hall running around the front of his patrol car, gun drawn, and coming face to face with Arboleda’s sedan. As Arboleda continues forward at a slow speed, Hall fires into the car while backing away. Arboleda suffered nine gunshot wounds.
Weeks before he was charged in Arboleda’s killing, Hall shot and killed a second man, 32-year-old Tyrell Wilson in March 2021, when Wilson pulled a knife and took a step toward him. Like with Arboleda, Hall was cleared by an internal sheriff’s probe. The DA’s office later declined to charge him in Wilson’s killing.
