OCEANSIDE — A man who was 17 years old when he shot and killed an Oceanside police officer is seeking to have his case retroactively transferred to juvenile court, a decision that would essentially free him from a life prison sentence.
Meki Gaono, now 35, was convicted of first-degree murder for the Dec. 20, 2006, gang-related slaying of Officer Daniel Bessant. Prosecutors say that while Bessant was assisting another officer on a traffic stop, Gaono trained a rifle on the lawman from down the street and opened fire, killing Bessant and nearly striking another officer.
Gaono was tried as an adult and sentenced in 2009 to life without parole plus 61 years, but due to recent changes in state law — namely, ones governing that judges, not prosecutors, should decide whether juveniles can be tried as adults — certain cases involving juvenile offenders like Gaono can be transferred back to juvenile proceedings if a judge so decides.
As the juvenile system only oversees offenders until the age of 25, Gaono is expected to be released if his case is transferred to juvenile court.
A hearing that has spanned three days thus far in San Diego Superior Court revolved around whether Gaono has shown he is amenable to rehabilitation. Superior Court Judge Kimberlee Lagotta is expected to rule on the transfer request sometime after the hearing concludes later this week.
Prosecutors have argued the juvenile court system’s resources are insufficient to monitor or supervise an adult, while a defense attorney for Gaono argued his client has demonstrated a capacity to change and thus should be considered for a transfer to juvenile jurisdiction.
Deputy District Attorney Tom Manning told Lagotta that the killing was an “unprovoked ambush” on the officers that “demonstrated sophisticated criminal thinking and a cold callousness towards the lives of others.”
Manning, who said juvenile court was “not appropriate” to oversee Gaono’s case, focused on the gang-related motivations behind the shooting and said Gaono has not performed well in prior attempts at rehabilitation or during his time in custody.
But defense attorney Jimmy Rodriguez said Gaono “reformed himself of his own volition” even before changes to the law afforded him any hope of getting out of prison.
Rodriguez said Gaono renounced his gang affiliations and took a “pact of nonviolence” more than a decade ago because engaging in violent acts was “in his own words, dishonoring the memory of the man whose life he took.”
The attorney said Gaono has since educated himself and gained employable skills while incarcerated.
He also argued that his client entered gang life in part due to his tumultuous upbringing and environment, in which participation in a gang was more unusual than non-participation.
Rodriguez said Gaono “started off life one step behind everybody else,” and while he made the decision at a young age to join a gang, that choice was “made a lot easier by the environment that he did not choose.”
Along with Gaono, two other gang members were convicted and sentenced for the killing, including co-defendant Penifoti Taeotui, who is expected to seek a similar hearing in the future.
