Fugitive in Custody
After Chase
Shots fired after suspect
runs down CHP officer
Dan Martin
The Tribune
 Paso Robles
-- A Santa Margarita man was arrested in Paso Robles on Thursday after
leading law enforcement on a car chase that ended with officers firing at
the fugitive car after the man drove into a CHP officer.
The chase began about 3 p.m. when Atascadero police — aiding the
county Narcotics Task Force — tried to stop John A. Holquin, 23, on a
parole violation warrant.
 A
Paso Robles police press release said Atascadero officers tried to stop
Holquin’s blue Ford Taurus at Curbaril Road and Highway 41. But Holquin
took off and led police onto northbound Highway 101. The highway patrol
joined the chase in Templeton, and Paso Robles police caught up with the
parade when Holquin exited the freeway in Paso.
Sirens
wailed down highways 41 and 101, onto Spring Street in Paso Robles and
then onto Riverside Avenue.
Holquin’s
luck ran out after he turned onto 19th Street to lose police. The street
led into a dead end in the Pioneer Park neighborhood, so he made a U-turn
to return to Riverside Avenue, police said.
Within
seconds, the chase ended when Holquin’s leased car got caught between a
stop sign, a fire hydrant, a fence pole and four police cars.
Holquin
then rammed into the CHP officer who was approaching his car. Holquin was
wrestled into custody after an officer or officers fired shots into his
windshield, police said.
The
injured CHP officer was taken to Twin Cities Community Hospital. He was
later released, hospital officials said. His name was not available
Thursday night.
The
commotion startled many nearby residents and witnesses.
“It
was unnerving,” said Cindi Dzida, who owns Design Images, a granite
company near the scene. Business soured after police blocked traffic for a
radius of several blocks at around 3:30 p.m., Dzida said.
Sixteen-year-old
Gabbie Placencia, who lives on 19th Street about 125 feet from where the
shots were fired, grabbed her 1-year-old nephew and ducked.
“I
was on the floor,” Placencia said. “I was scared. You’re not used to
seeing that in Paso.”
Placencia
caught some of the action before she ducked, though, and said the driver
hit a fence and tried to seesaw through a three-point turn to escape. But
he was already surrounded.
That’s
when a CHP officer exited his car, and Holquin drove into him, injuring
his leg, said Detective Rick Ince, a Paso Robles police spokesman.
Then,
the shots were fired. Holquin was not hit. It was unclear who fired the
shots.
Holquin
was taken to San Luis Obispo County Jail on Thursday night on charges of
attempted murder, evading arrest, possession of a controlled substance for
sale and a parole violation. Because of the parole hold, he was being
detained without the possibility of bail.
The
episode drew about 20 cars from four law-enforcement agencies, including
all on-duty patrol cars from the Paso Robles Police Department, Ince said.
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Oceano man seeks insanity defense in
strangling
James Norman Broshears, 56, arraigned in murder of his 75-year-old female
companion
Patrick S. Pemberton
The Tribune, June 29, 2001
 SAN
LUIS OBISPO —— Now declared competent to stand trial, an Oceano man
charged with strangling his live-in companion is formally pursuing an
insanity defense.
Criminal charges against James Norman Broshears,
56, were suspended last October, when Superior Court Judge Christopher
Money declared him unfit to stand trial. After receiving treatment at
Atascadero State Hospital for seven months, Broshears was declared
competent on May 21 to stand trial. He entered pleas of not guilty and not
guilty by reason of insanity two days later.
Broshears briefly appeared in court Thursday for
an arraignment, which was continued to July 19.
A former guard at the California Men’s Colony,
Broshears was arrested May 14, 2000, and charged with the murder of
Harriet Zizicas, his 75-year-old girlfriend. Broshears admitted to choking
the victim, a former county probation officer, with a cord he cut off an
electric sander.
But Broshears’ attorney, Ken Cirisan, has
suggested from the outset that his client was mentally ill at the time and
not in control of his actions.
At the state hospital, Broshears has been offered
counseling, medication and exposure to the court process through mock
trials.
“He seems to be a lot more stable now,”
Cirisan said.
After the defendant formally entered a plea of
not guilty by reason of insanity, Money appointed three psychiatrists to
evaluate him. Those reports should be completed by the next hearing.
Attorneys then will work to determine if a mental
illness did guide Broshears or if he willfully and intentionally killed
his victim, said Deputy District Attorney Larry Greene. Once that’s
done, attorneys will discuss a possible plea or a trial date will be set.
“The doctors’ reports play a role in all
these assessments,” Greene said.
The community has a right to be protected, Greene
said, but the prosecution also has to be fair and consider factors that
might support an insanity plea, though few defendants pursue that defense,
since it is difficult to prove.
The burden is on the defense to prove a defendant
was insane when a crime was committed. But Cirisan said Broshears
represents a classic case of a person controlled by a mental illness.
Broshears allegedly told detectives he thought he
had driven to heaven after the murder; in reality, he had driven to the
Madonna Inn, where patrons saw him talking to rocks, plants and a
waterfall. Broshears, who had previously been on psychiatric medication,
also told a detective he thought Zizicas’ blood contained evil and that
he was trying to choke the meanness out of her.
But he also allegedly told a detective he knew
what he was doing was illegal when he strangled Zizicas and that he no
longer loved her due to her excessive drinking.
Broshears is still at Atascadero State Hospital,
Cirisan said, so he can remain psychologically stable. If he is declared
not guilty by reason of insanity, Greene said, he would remain at a state
hospital until it is proven he is sane.
He would receive treatment for a minimum of 180
days. But he could remain a mental patient indefinitely if psychiatric
experts think he is not mentally fit to return to society.
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