Terrell Markham Sentenced and hit with 3 strikes...

Prosecutor says teenage gang member's prison sentence will send a message

By Mike Cruz Staff Writer
01/14/2011

SAN BERNARDINO - A teenage gang member who was shot and blinded by a San Bernardino police officer, after the youth reached for a handgun in his back pocket while at gunpoint, was sentenced to almost six years in state prison and has three strikes.

Terrell Lewis Markham sat next to his lawyer, Woodland Hills-based Dale Galipo, in the jury box of a San Bernardino courtroom Friday as Galipo argued for Judge Michael Smith to grant his client a new trial or at least probation.

Smith denied the defense requests and sentenced Markham, now 19, to state prison. The judge recommended he serve his time in a medical facility.

Prosecutors say the guilty verdicts and sentencing send a message to the defendant and other gang members that drawing a weapon on a police officer will not be tolerated.

"The defendant needs to go to prison," Deputy District Attorney Ron Webster told the court. "To give him a light sentence not only sends the wrong message to the defendant, but to the community at large."

A jury found Markham guilty Nov. 1 of brandishing a stolen gun on officer Adam Affrunti during a foot chase through the Projects street gang injunction area in November 2007.

Affrunti and Sgt. James Beach were on gang patrol when they tried to talk to then 16-year-old Markham who was dressed in a fur-lined jacket and gang clothing in front of Westside Food and Liquor, on Medical Center Drive. He was on probation at the time.

Markham ran north with a heavy object in his pocket, jumped over a fence at Alturas Street and hid behind a bush in a residential courtyard. Affrunti ordered the teen to the ground at gunpoint, but he didn't obey commands. The teen finally went to the ground but didn't get flat.

When Markham reached for a firearm from his rear pocket, Affrunti fired and struck him in the head, shoulder and hand. Police say Markham's gun, an H&K .40 caliber handgun, was stolen from a state corrections officer's home in Victorville.

"Members of San Bernardino Police Department have a very difficult job," Webster said. "They're trying to protect the good citizens of this community and keep them safe in their neighborhoods."

The jury found Markham guilty of resisting arrest, possessing stolen property, brandishing the firearm, as well as special allegations attached to each count for using a firearm and benefitting a street gang.

The defendant now has three strikes. If he is ever charged with another felony, he could face life in state prison under the Three Strikes Law, prosecutors said.

Galipo had no comment about the sentence and outcome of the case. But in his arguments for a new trial, Galipo challenged the evidence.

"From the defense perspective, we thought there was insufficient evidence on the brandishing charge," said Galipo. The gun never left Markham's pocket, he said.

Galipo also asserted that the amount of gang evidence presented by prosecutors was "extremely prejudicial" against his client, and he believed the court should have allowed it to be presented separately.

The defense argued for Markham to receive probation.

"I think Mr. Markham, at 16 years old, has already suffered the ultimate penalty," Galipo said, alluding to what he said is his loss of sight and damaged senses of smell and taste.

Galipo also represents Markham in a civil case against San Bernardino and its police department in U.S. District Court in Riverside.

Markham told probation officers, in a pre-sentencing report, that he only remembered walking to his grandmother's house and then waking up in the hospital, as to the shooting.

Markham's lengthy criminal history begins at age 9 and then shows a pattern of regular or increasingly serious criminal conduct, according to the county Probation Department report.

In the past, the defendant was in custody in Juvenile Hall 10 times for 474 days. He went into court-ordered placement three times for 251 days. He was on probation three times.

"The defendant has spent his short life running from things, placement and police," the report states. "Now he is faced with a situation he cannot run from: taking responsibility for his life and the decision he has made that got him to this point."