From Andy Furillo:
A witness in a murder trial who threatened to withhold his testimony if he didn't get an immigration deal wound up taking the stand and telling the jury what he knew about the shooting death of Gary Brooks.
Vimal Singh had been classified as an "aggravated felon" by the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which has been trying to deport him to his native Fiji because of his past convictions for car theft and second-degree burglary.
Singh, a resident legal alien, said in an interview with The Bee earlier this month that if the feds pressed the deportation issue, he would refuse to testify in the murder trial of defendants Wayne Albert Caskey and Bennett Louis Kovac.
Sacramento Count prosecutors, however, negotiated with Singh's lawyer to send a memorandum to the immigration authorities telling them about his "willingness to come forward" in the murder case, according to the witness' attorney, Michael J. Wise.
In his testimony Monday, Singh told jurors he saw two masked men enter the south area electronics warehouse where Brooks was shot dead. Then, when they were leaving, Singh said the men turned a gun on him and fired. He was not hit by the gunfire.
Deputy District Attorney Michael Kane in his opening statement at the trial included Singh's observations as part of a chain of events in the circumstantial case against Caskey and Kovac.
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