The prosecution is expected to rest its case today in the retrial of a 25-year-old woman accused of murder in the April 19, 2009, shooting death of Alison Joelle Freeseha at a party in Elk Grove.
A Sacramento Superior Court jury in January 2011 failed to reach a verdict in its deliberations in the case of Tamara NIcole Bassett. Her retrial is now under way in front of Judge Ernest W. Sawtelle.
The same jury last year convicted Bassett's co-defendant, Raymond Thomas Vigel, now 22, of first-degree murder. But it failed to reach verdicts on two attempted murder counts filed against him, and he also is being retried on those charges.
Deputy District Attorney Sheri Greco is expected to call her final witness this afternoon. Paul Irish is the defense attorney representing Bassett while Michael Long is representing Vigel.
According to the prosecution, Bassett attended the party on Paseo Del Sol Way with a girlfriend. When the girlfriend had too much to drink and the girlfriend's boyfriend became upset about it, Bassett confronted him, witnesses said. The man then slugged Bassett and bloodied her nose, which prompted Bassett to call her own boyfriend, Vigel, according to investigators.
When Vigel arrived, he sprayed partygoers with gunfire from his 9 mm handgun. One of the bullets struck and killed Freeseha in the back and killed her. Three other people also were injured, including one who was paralyzed from the waist down.
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