Trial begins for man accused of killing 1 and wounding 4 in alleged road rage incident last Thanksgiving

Prosecutors alleged during opening statements Thursday that a man facing charges of first degree murder and attempted murder became enraged when the truck the victims were riding in grazed his side view mirror in Costa Mesa, then followed them before killing one and wounding four others.

The shooting on Thanksgiving, Nov. 24, 2022 happened outside of an apartment complex at 732 W. Bay St. The man who died, Lucas Rivera-Velasco, 30, of Costa Mesa, was a landscaper who had been celebrating a rare day off with five other people at Costa Brava, a Mexican restaurant about 1.5 miles away, Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Daniel Feldman told jurors Thursday.

The group of six were playing loud music and telling jokes as they were on their way to one of their homes. They had no idea the tan truck they were riding in had made slight contact with a black truck driven by the defendant, Lee Q. Walker, 42, of Santa Ana, Feldman said.

“Lucas Rivera-Velasco was murdered over minor, trivial, and as it would later become known to everyone, nonexistent property damage,” Feldman said.

Walker was headed to the beach with his family. His 4-year-old son had asked for Chicken McNuggets along the way, and the defendant was becoming increasingly frustrated after pulling up to several McDonald’s restaurants that were closed for the holiday, his girlfriend at the time and the mother of their child, Denise Segura, recalled from the witness stand Thursday.

She said he cussed after she told him she heard what sounded like the victims’ vehicle striking the back of their truck. Then, he retrieved a 9-millimeter handgun from his center console.

“I told him ... ‘just don’t,’” she said. “I was pleading with him [to] ‘please put it away.’”

She snapped a photo of the tan truck’s license plate and begged her boyfriend to let police handle things, but “he wasn’t hearing me,” she said. He would later ask her to delete that picture.

When they stopped at a left turn light at 19th Street and Harbor Boulevard, Walker got out of his truck and knocked on the other vehicle’s driver side window. Segura was unable to recall whether he had the gun with him at that point.

The men inside kept the window up and were primarily Spanish speakers, so they did not understand what he was trying to shout at them, Feldman said. They drove on when the signal turned green, and thought nothing further of the interaction.

Walker continued to follow them in spite of his family’s protest. His son began to cry when he parked in the middle of the street as two men in the truck in front of them were getting out.

Surveillance footage from multiple cameras played in court Thursday showed Walker approach the vehicle’s open passenger side doors before firing into it. Relatives of Rivera-Velasco present as the video played winced when they heard eight gunshots ring out, then wiped tears from their eyes.

“I asked him, ‘What did you just do?’” Segura recalled. “His son was screaming his head off at this point. [Walker] just said ‘I’m sorry. I [expletive] up.’ He kept saying that.”

Walker got back into his truck and drove Segura to her mother’s house. He turned himself in to police the following morning. No damage was found on his vehicle upon later inspection, Feldman said.

Costa Mesa police officer George Maridakis was one of the first emergency responders to arrive at the scene of the shooting that evening. The truck was still running and music was blaring out of its stereo when he got there.

The officer testifed that he saw Rivera-Velasco lying face up in the street near the rear of the vehicle. He had been shot once in the groin and once in the head, Feldman said.

Three other wounded men were on their backs or sides on the sidewalk, Maridakis said. A fifth who had been shot in the shoulder was sitting in the back seat.

The only person with them who wasn’t struck by gunfire was Jaime Nieto-Milan. Miladakis said he would later see him tugging at another officer’s sleeve in an attempt to direct more attention to his fatally wounded friend.