Gardea Trial: Gardea gives his testimony on the witness stand

John Nate Gardea Sr. taking the witness stand in court giving his testimony of the night he is accused of murder.

State prosecutors began trial with asking Gardea about the events leading up to the alleged murder.

Prosecutors asked Gardea if he was handed over a gun on the night of June 1, 2018, which was when Edward Rowland was shot.

Gardea said yes and prosecutors asked him why he did not tell detectives who the gun came from.

Gardea then denied making that statement and said he was under the influence the night he was being interviewed by detectives.

Prosecutors then reminded Gardea of the morning of the shooting where he left a hotel he was staying at after a woman named Carrie Smith allegedly gave Gardea a tip that police were searching for him.

Prosecutors also argued that Gardea spoke to Smith prior to the shooting saying that ” he couldn’t let it go ” when speaking about Edward Rowland who is the victim in this case.

Gardea again denied this saying he had poor choice of words and that he was under the influence.

In a re-direct, the defense asked Gardea about his prior involvement in gangs and experiences with gangs in prison where he served time for a prior offense.

Gardea explained that at the prison, an inmate with the Mexican mafia arrived, and he was told my a group of inmates that he was chosen to kill him. Gardea said he refused to do it, and he was then attacked by three of those inmates with knives for his refusal.

Gardea then talked about a program he was attending while in prison which assisted previous gang members in getting back to their feet to prepare them for life after prison .

Gardea mentioned that he had an ” out of body experience ” and spoke to a group of about 30 gang members in this program talking about changing his life and his path to recovery. He also mentioned that he was instructed in this program to ” do a good deed daily ” .

The defense then asked Gardea about the time he first met Edward Rowland and the time he tried selling Eddie some tools.

The defense briefly mentioned the time Gardea told detectives Rowland had beaten him up and stole some of his belongings. When asked why Gardea met with Rowland on the night of June 1st , Gardea said his initial plan was to visit a friend, reason with Rowland to get his belongings back, and make an offering.

Gardea then mentioned that an unidentified person handed Gardea a gun that night. He said that his plans of making amends with Rowland changed after that, and he drove to the Circle K to re-think his plan.

Gardea then said that he parked his car at Loomis because he was afraid that someone might steal it if they saw it at the Twin Palms apartment.

Trial is expected to continue this week.

KYMA 2019