From Andy Furillo:
Two teenagers admitted in a videotaped interview with Sacramento police played in court today that they beat a 90-year-old woman to death during the course of a robbery of her North Sacramento house.
Daniel Alan Russell and Calvin Eugene Pearson said they used money from the fatal break-in to get "hella drunk" after they paid "a bum" $20 to buy them alcohol at the Shell station on Del Paso Boulevard. They said they also bought clothing. Russell said he had planned to use some of the cash to pay for a tattoo for his girlfriend.
The two are charged with the April 15, 2006, bludgeoning death of Marie Oliver in her home in the 2700 block of Ellen Street.
In the second day of their murder trial in Sacramento Superior Court, Deputy District Attorney Kevin Greene played a videotape of detectives' conversations with the two in an interview room at police headquarters on Freeport Boulevard. The camera also kept running and captured candid conversations between the two defendants when detectives walked out and left them alone.
"We doing at least a year, you know, knock on wood that we don't," Russell told Pearson in the videotape that was taken three days after Oliver's death.
Russell said both the defendants used Oliver's cane to beat her to death. Pearson said he didn't remember using the cane, but he admitted to holding her down during the break-in while his partner ransacked the residence.
"He hit her a couple of times, I hit her a couple of times," Russell said.
Russell said he grabbed Oliver and threw her to the ground when the two broke into the victim's house.
Russell said they beat Oliver because she resisted them and at times kicked at them while they had her pinned on the ground.
"And she started fighting with us and stuff," he said. "Then we started like hitting her and stuff, trying to get her to stop."
Asked if Russell's recollection was correct, Pearson replied, "Kind of, like what, yeah."
Russell, now 18 years old, and Pearson, also 18, were both 16 at the time of the attack.
The two defendants at time are seen on the tape laughing and appear to be preoccupied with the crime's consequences.
"How long do you think we're going to do for this?" Pearson asked detectives at one point.
Asked by investigators what the defendants thought the sentence should be, Pearson replied, "Anything, but not no CYA (California Youth Authority)." They both also said they did not think they deserved time in adult prison.
Two county DNA experts testified today that the victim's blood was found on the defendants' shoes while Russell's genetic material was discovered on gloves left in Oliver's house.
Footprints lifted from the house also showed strong similarities, if not outright matches, to the defendants' footwear. In the interview, Pearson said the detectives had offered to show him pictures of the footprints to get him to talk.
"I was planning on wearing my brother's black Reeboks, too, fool," Pearson said.
"We should have been smarter about it," Russell replied. "Man, I knew I should have been smarter about it."
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