A Martinez man charged in connection with two Solano County murders committed months apart in 2022 will be tried on both allegations at once after a Solano County Superior Court Judge denied a motion by his attorneys to have the charges severed and tried separately.
Judge John B. Ellis made his ruling on Friday. The trial of Richard Raymond Klein, 54, is slated to begin with jury selection this week.
Klein, a previously convicted felon, was indicted in the killings by a Solano County grand jury in June 2023.
Deputy District Attorney Barry Shapiro is prosecuting the case, and defense attorney Dustin Gorden represents Klein.
Klein is charged with two murder counts and two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, committing murder while released on his own recognizance, and a special circumstance for committing multiple murders.
The prosecution alleges that Klein committed murder on April 21, 2022, at a gathering on Manzanita Avenue in Fairfield, and again on Dec 15, 2022, while out of custody on the initial murder charge, allegedly committed a second fatal shooting in Suisun City.
In the Fairfield case, Klein is charged with an enhancement for personally discharging a firearm, leading to the death of Anthony Fuimaono, 56.
Klein was initially scheduled for a preliminary hearing in the Fuimaono shooting on Oct. 28, 2022, and was held to answer as charged. Some two weeks later, and held without bail in Solano County Jail in Fairfield, he was formally arraigned. However, during the proceeding, Gordon asked the court to release his client and reduce bail, arguing two constitutional amendments, including the Eighth (excessive bail).
The prosecution objected at the time, citing a risk to public safety, the risk to the safety of the victim’s family, the seriousness of the charge, Klein’s criminal history, his prior prison time, and that Klein was previously a validated member of the Nazi Low Riders, a White supremacist prison and criminal street gang with origins in the California Youth Authority. However, the court released Klein on a pretrial services contract.
Then, while Klein was out of custody, the Suisun City Police Department on Dec. 15, 2022, responded to a shots-fired call in the Potrero Circle area. When officers arrived, they found a man on the ground in front of 1244 Potrero Circle, suffering from a gunshot wound. Despite life-saving measures by officers and paramedics, Matthew Muller, 37, died.
After the second shooting, investigators identified Klein as the suspect but said he had fled across the Southern California border. He was taken into custody in Rosarito, Mexico, by U.S. Marshals and Mexican authorities some days after and returned to the United States. He was arrested Jan. 13, 2023, at the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office.
If convicted at trial for the killings, Klein — who was convicted of a felony in 2006 in Contra Costa County — faces 50 years to life for the murders and likely more time for using firearms and being a previously convicted felon, among other enhancements.