A Solano County Superior Court docket choose on Friday scheduled a January jury trial for a 54-year-old Martinez man charged in two deadly shootings in 2022.
Richard Raymond Klein, at 6 ft, 7 inches tall and weighing 280 kilos, clad in a striped jail jumpsuit, his head shaved, appeared in Division 23 in Vallejo to study of his trial date and the setting of a movement to suppress proof.
Standing behind a lectern close to the courtroom’s jury field, shackled on the waist and legs, he towered over his protection lawyer, Dustin M. Gordon, and heard Decide John B. Ellis declare that jury choice would start at 10 a.m. Jan. 27 within the Justice Constructing.
The choose additionally set some pretrial issues, amongst them, at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 10, the movement to suppress proof and a movement to sever the trial; in limine motions, or requests to Ellis to exclude or embrace particular proof or arguments earlier than trial, at 8:30 a.m. Jan. 21 and 22. The trial, which incorporates particular circumstances, is anticipated to final 5 weeks.
Deputy District Legal professional Barry Shapiro leads the prosecution in opposition to Klein, a beforehand convicted felon who was indicted for the killings by a Solano County grand jury on June 30, 2023. The Solano County District Legal professional’s Workplace then mixed the homicide prices into one case, with alleged particular circumstances. Court docket information point out that the case is now not a capital case.
The indictment, which basically changed the preliminary listening to course of, contains the 2 homicide counts and two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, committing homicide whereas launched on his personal recognizance and a particular circumstance for committing a number of murders.
Seen throughout a earlier courtroom listening to, Richard R. Klein, 54, of Martinez, indicted for 2 killings in 2022, appeared Friday in Division 23 of Solano County Superior Court docket in Vallejo, the place he’s scheduled for a jury trial in January. His lawyer (at left) is Dustin M. Gordon.
(Reporter file/Joel Rosenbaum)
The indictment displays allegations within the two beforehand filed prison complaints, that Klein allegedly dedicated homicide on April 21, 2022, at a gathering on Manzanita Avenue in Fairfield, then allegedly once more, on Dec 15, whereas out of custody on the preliminary homicide cost, allegedly committing a deadly capturing in Suisun Metropolis.
Within the Fairfield case, as beforehand reported, Klein was initially charged with an enhancement for personally discharging a firearm on the time, resulting in the dying of Anthony Fuimaono, 56.
Klein was scheduled for a preliminary listening to within the case on Oct. 28, 2022, and was held to reply as charged. Some two weeks later and held with out bail in Solano County Jail in Fairfield, he was formally arraigned. Nonetheless, through the continuing, Gordon requested now-retired Decide Robert Bowers to launch his consumer and scale back bail, arguing two constitutional amendments, together with the Eighth (extreme bail).
Throughout these proceedings, Chief Deputy District Legal professional Bruce Flynn objected to Klein’s launch and the bail discount, citing numerous causes: the danger to public security, the danger to the protection of the sufferer’s household, the seriousness of the cost, Klein’s prison historical past, his prior jail time, and that Klein was beforehand a validated member of the Nazi Low Riders, a White supremacist jail and prison road gang with origins within the California Youth Authority. Nonetheless, Bowers launched Klein on a pretrial companies contract.
Then, whereas Klein was out of custody, the Suisun Metropolis Police Division on Dec. 15 responded to a shots-fired name within the Potrero Circle space. When officers arrived, they discovered a person on the bottom in entrance of 1244 Potrero Circle, affected by a gunshot wound. Regardless of life-saving measures by officers and paramedics, Matthew Muller, 37, died.
The Suisun Metropolis Police Division investigated the capturing with the assistance of the Solano County Main Crimes Process Power. The Solano County District Legal professional’s Workplace filed a prison grievance in opposition to Klein on Dec. 23 for the second killing, requesting a no-bail arrest warrant.
After the second capturing, investigators have been capable of establish Klein because the suspect and find him. He had fled throughout the Southern California border. He was taken into custody in Rosarito, Mexico, by U.S. Marshals and Mexican authorities some days after Dec. 15 and returned to america. He was arrested Jan. 13 on the San Diego County Sheriff’s Workplace.
Additionally, within the second case, Klein was held on a felony warrant out of Contra Costa County on prices of being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession of narcotics on the market, possession of a managed substance whereas armed, and possession of a managed substance on the market.
He stays within the Stanton Correctional Facility in Fairfield with out bail on the homicide allegations and $450,000 in bail on the fees listed within the out-of-county warrant.
If convicted at trial for the killings, Klein — who was convicted of a felony in 2006 in Contra Costa County — faces 50 years to life for the murders and certain extra time for utilizing firearms and being a beforehand convicted felon, amongst different enhancements.
Initially Printed: September 2, 2025 at 5:47 AM PDT
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