LONG BEACH (CNS) - Closing arguments are scheduled Friday in the murder trial of a former Long Beach Unified School District safety officer charged in the killing of an 18-year-old woman who was shot while inside a car that was leaving the scene of an altercation with a teenage girl.
Testimony wrapped up Thursday, and Eddie Gonzalez was not called to the stand in his own defense.
He is charged with murder for the Sept. 27, 2021, shooting of Manuela "Mona" Rodriguez as she sat in the front passenger seat of an Infiniti as it was driven in a parking lot on Sept. 27, 2021.
The shooting was captured on video that was widely aired on local media.
Rodriguez died days later after being taken off life support.
Gonzalez, now 54, was charged about a month later with murder.
Jurors can also consider the lesser count of voluntary manslaughter if they acquit Gonzalez of the more serious murder charge, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Richard M. Goul told the panel Thursday.
At a hearing outside the jury's presence, Gonzalez told the judge he had made a decision "not to testify."
The judge told jurors during final instructions Thursday afternoon that Gonzalez has a constitutional right not to testify, and told them not to let it influence their decision in the case.
During his opening statement last week, Deputy District Attorney Kristopher Gay told the jury that Gonzalez "responded to youthful disobedience with deadly force" after breaking up a fight with a female Millikan High School student near Spring Street and Palo Verde Avenue, about a block from the high school.
Gonzalez tried to stop the Infiniti containing Rodriguez, her boyfriend and his teenage brother from leaving the scene following the altercation, slapped the hood of the vehicle and yelled at the car's occupants, who disobeyed his commands, according to the prosecutor.
The former school safety officer was "not done trying to stop that car" as it was being driven away from him, and raised up his firearm and fired two rounds from behind the car, the deputy district attorney told jurors.
He said the car "did not get anywhere near" Gonzalez, telling jurors that they would see videos taken by two students from the high school along with a surveillance video from the parking lot. He told jurors the videos would be supported by the testimony of three prosecution witnesses and leave "no doubt" that Gonzalez fired as the vehicle drove away when he was in "no danger."
Gonzalez's attorney, Michael Schwartz, countered that the vehicle's tires squealed before any shot was fired and that the evidence will show that his client was much closer to the vehicle than what the prosecution alleged.
He said his client had less than two seconds to assess whether he was about to be run over, how to get out of the way and stop the threat.
"They will not prove that it wasn't self-defense because it definitely was," Schwartz said.
The defense's first witness, Sabrina Ramos -- who had been involved in the confrontation with Rodriguez -- testified earlier this week that she saw Gonzalez run over to the car containing Rodriguez, her boyfriend and his younger brother.
"It looked like he was going to get hit by the car," the 18-year-old former Millikan High School student testified.
Another defense witness, who was in a vehicle nearby, testified that he believed the school safety officer would have been in danger of being struck if he hadn't moved out of the way of the vehicle.
In testimony Monday, Rodriguez's boyfriend, Rafeul Chowdhury, denied trying to run over Gonzalez after the school safety officer intervened in the confrontation.
"Did you try to hit the school safety officer?" Deputy District Attorney Lee Orquiola asked the young man.
"Of course not," Chowdhury responded.
He said he didn't hear gunshots being fired at the car's rear passenger window and didn't realize what they were until his younger brother told him. He said he saw blood "all over" and stopped nearby to ask for help for his injured girlfriend.
Jurors saw three videos, including a surveillance video and cell phone videos from two bystanders, in which the vehicle's tires could be heard screeching before the two shots rang out.
Rodriguez was struck in the head by one of the bullets, which entered the vehicle through the rear passenger window. Police also found a strike mark next to the rear passenger window's door handle.
Gonzalez -- who is free on bond -- was fired by the school district a week after the shooting.
Just over a year ago, Rodriguez's family announced that they reached a $13 million settlement of their lawsuit against the school district in connection with her shooting death.
The lawsuit alleged that Gonzalez did not pass probation when he tried to be hired by the Los Alamitos and Sierra Madre police departments, but he was still hired by the LBUSD, which compounded matters by negligently training him.
The family's attorneys also argued that Gonzalez violated district policy by shooting into a moving vehicle at a fleeing person.
"I personally don't really care about the settlement. It's not bringing back my sister," Rodriguez's brother, Omar, said last year. "I don't want anybody else to go through this pain."