(Reporter file/Joel Rosenbaum)
A Solano County Superior Court judge again has rescheduled a trial-setting and a motion to suppress evidence in the double-murder case against a 54-year-old Martinez man.
During a Monday morning proceeding in Department 23, Judge John B. Ellis, who previously vacated an Aug. 26 jury trial, also vacated a scheduled trial-setting and motion for Richard Raymond Klein, resetting them for 8:30 a.m. Aug. 29 in the Justice Building in Vallejo. The trial, whenever it is scheduled, is expected to last five weeks.
Vallejo criminal defense attorney Dustin M. Gordon represented Klein, a previously convicted felon, and Deputy District Attorney Ashlee N. Thomas, appearing for Deputy DA Barry Shapiro, represented the DA’s Office.
Indicted in June 2023 by a Solano County grand jury on two counts of murder, Klein — a large man at 6 feet, 7 inches tall, weighing 280 pouonds, his right arm covered in tattoos, his head shaved — was charged with the murders on April 21, 2023.
Court records indicate that the case is no longer a capital case; however, special circumstances remain alleged.
With the indictment, handed down June 30 after four days of testimony, the Solano County District Attorney’s Office was able to combine the two murder cases into one.
The indictment, which essentially replaced the preliminary hearing process, includes the 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 indictment reflects allegations in the two previously filed criminal complaints, that Klein allegedly committed murder on April 21, 2022, at a gathering on Manzanita Avenue in Fairfield, then allegedly again, on Dec 15, while out of custody on the initial murder charge, allegedly committing a fatal shooting in Suisun City.
In the Fairfield case, Klein was originally charged with an enhancement for personally discharging a firearm at the time, leading to the death of Anthony Fuimaono, 56.
Klein was scheduled for a preliminary hearing in the case 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 now-retired Judge Robert Bowers to release his client and reduce bail, arguing two constitutional amendments, including the Eighth (excessive bail).
During those proceedings, Chief Deputy District Attorney Bruce Flynn objected to Klein’s release and the bail reduction, citing a number of reasons: the 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, Bowers released Klein on a pretrial services contract.
Then, while Klein was out of custody, the Suisun City Police Department on Dec. 15 responded to a shots-fired call in the area of Potrero Circle. 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.
The Suisun City Police Department investigated the shooting with the help of the Solano County Major Crimes Task Force. The Solano County District Attorney’s Office filed a criminal complaint against Klein on Dec. 23 for the second killing, requesting a no-bail arrest warrant.
After the second shooting, investigators were able to identify Klein as the suspect and locate him. He was taken into custody in Rosarito, Mexico, by U.S. Marshals and Mexican authorities some days after Dec. 15 and returned to the United States. He was arrested Jan. 13 at the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office.
Also, in the second case, Klein was held on a felony warrant out of Contra Costa County on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm, possession of narcotics for sale, possession of a controlled substance while armed, and possession of a controlled substance for sale.
He remains in the Stanton Correctional Facility in Fairfield without bail on the murder allegations and $450,000 in bail on the charges listed in the out-of-county warrant.
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.