Los Angeles Times - 01.08.2019

CALIFORNIA

T HURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2019::L ATIMES.COM/CALIFORNIA

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GILROY, Calif. — The motive be-

hind a gunman’s Gilroy Garlic Festival

rampage that left three dead re-

mained a mystery Wednesday, with

federal authorities saying literature

found in searches of shooter Santino

William Legan’s homes ran the gamut

from left to right.

John Bennett, FBI special agent in

charge, said they had not determined

the ideology of the shooter and had re-

covered “conflicting literature” during

searches in Nevada and Gilroy.

Authorities are bringing in two

profilers to help build a picture of the

gunman, who was shot dead by police.

Among the “information we are

collecting, there is conflicting litera-

ture ... everything from left to right.”

So, Bennett said, investigators do not

feel they can “put this person in a box. I

wouldn’t say it was extreme views. It is

writings and books that we have found

through some of the search warrants.

LAURA MILLERplaces a stuffed bear at a memorial to those killed in the Gilroy shooting. Authorities

said they are continuing to investigate the gunman’s motives, going through literature found in searches.

Photographs byKent NishimuraLos Angeles Times

‘Conflicting’ picture of

Gilroy shooter emerges

Gunman’s readings ran the political gamut from left to right

LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS patrol along the outskirts of the

Gilroy Garlic Festival area on Tuesday, two days after the shooting.

By Richard Winton,

Hannah Fry

and Ruben Vives

[SeeProfile,B4]

SAN FRANCISCO —

Nearly 30 years ago, the U.S.

Supreme Court decided 5 to

4 that states could not im-

pose qualifications on candi-

dates for Congress that were

stricter than those specified

in the Constitution, a ruling

that could apply to presi-

dential candidates.

The Constitution says

that to be president, a per-

son must be a natural-born

citizen, a resident for 14 years

and at least 35 years old.

A measure signed into

lawby California Gov. Gavin

Newsom on Tuesday adds

another requirement for

presidential candidates who

want to appear on the state’s

presidential primary ballot:

They must disclose their in-

come tax returns.

Passed on a party-line

vote, the law was clearly

aimed at President Trump,

who has refused to release

his returns.

Legal scholars said

Wednesday that the 1995 rul-

ing that barred states from

imposing certain require-

ments for ballot access is

likely to be at issue in litiga-

tion over the constitutional-

ity of California’s new law.

They disagreed, however,

about whether the law

would be upheld.

“This new law raises

some very interesting and

novel constitutional issues,”

said UCLA constitutional

law professor Adam Winkler.

“Because it is novel, it is hard

to know how the courts

would go, but there is plenty

of reason to think courts will

be hostile to California’s re-

quirements.”

One lawsuit has already

been filed.

Roque “Rocky” De La

Fuente, a perennial candi-

date who is seeking the Re-

publican presidential nomi-

nation in 2020, sued Califor-

nia in U.S. District Court in

San Diego on Tuesday to

overturn the ballot require-

ment. The suit said Califor-

nia could not force him to

waive rights he is guaran-

teed under federal law.

UC Berkeley Law School

Dean Erwin Chemerinsky,

who believes the law is con-

stitutional, said it could eas-

ily be distinguished from the

1995 high court ruling over-

turning state ballot qualifi-

cations.

That decision, U.S. Term

Limits Inc. vs. Thornton,

found unconstitutional

state laws that denied ballot

access to House of Repre-

sentatives candidates who

had already served at least

three terms and Senate can-

didates who had served two

terms.

“I think there is a huge

difference” between Califor-

nia’s law and those at stake

in the earlier case,

Chemerinsky said.

The term limits ruling

Legal experts

split on state’s

tax-return law

Measure requiring

presidential hopefuls’

disclosure to appear

on primary ballot

faces uncertain future.

By Maura Dolan

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOMsigned the new election law

after it passed the Legislature on a party-line vote.

Rich PedroncelliAssociated Press

[SeeLaw,B5]

The man in the dark

blazer grabs the micro-

phone and looks straight

into the camera inside the

dimly lit bar in downtown

Los Angeles.

He seems uneasy as he

freestyles to the beat, calling

himself a “gangster” and

rapping incoherently while

surrounded by a group of

other impromptu perform-

ers who gathered in the

predawn hours Tuesday at

the King Eddy Saloon for its

weekly open mic night.

With a drink in one hand

and the microphone in the

other, the man moves within

inches of the camera and be-

gins to rap more forcefully.

“I killed my ... and buried

that ... in the ... dirt,” he raps,

using expletives. Other per-

formers exchange con-

cerned looks as he walks off

the stage.

Authorities are reviewing

the footage, obtained by

KTLA-TV Channel 5 on

Wednesday, which appears

to show Robert Camou,

27, who is suspected of kid-

napping his girlfriend on

Monday, rap about killing

and burying a woman and

being sought by police. Cam-

ou’s girlfriend, 31-year-old

ROBERT CAMOU of Monrovia, accused in the disappearance of his girlfriend,

Amanda Kathleen Custer, is taken into custody in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Irfan KhanLos Angeles Times

Video suggests a killing

Footage seems to show suspect rapped about slaying

By Hannah Fry

[SeeVideo,B4]

Sen. Elizabeth Warren
has asked the inspector gen-
eral’s office of the Depart-
ment of Homeland Security
to conduct an investigation
into the detention of U.S.
citizens by Customs and
Border Protection and Im-
migration and Customs En-
forcement.
In a letter dated Tuesday
to Joseph Cuffari, the Home-
land Security inspector gen-
eral, Warren (D-Mass.) fo-
cused on two recent high-
profile incidents — one in
Texas, the other in Southern
California — in which Ameri-
cans were detained.
Warren cited a Times in-
vestigation from April 2018,
which reported that ICE had
released almost 1,500 people
between 2012 and 2018 after
investigating their citi-
zenship claims.
The article found hun-
dreds of instances “in which
people were forced to prove
they are Americans and

sometimes spent months or

even years in detention.”

The two recent cases,

Warren wrote, “represent a

nightmare scenario in which

U.S. citizens were stopped at

the border or in the country,

presented proof of their citi-

zenship, were accused of no

other crime, and were still

held by ICE without re-

course for hours or days at a

time.”

Among other things,

Warren demanded to know

how many times ICE or the

Border Patrol had detained

U.S. citizens in the last five

years, as well as “the circum-

stances of these detentions.”

The senator, a presi-

dential candidate, also

wants to ascertain what

policies are in place to pre-

vent such detentions, and

what steps immigration au-

thorities have taken “to

avoid the wrongful arrest

and mistaken detention of

United States citizens.”

Department of Home-

land Security officials did

not immediately respond to

a request for comment.

In her letter, Warren cites

the case of Francisco Erwin

Galicia, 18, a high school sen-

ior in Edinburg, Texas, who

was detained by Customs

Warren seeks probe

of border agencies’

detention of citizens

Presidential candidate

calls recent cases ‘a

nightmare scenario.’

By Giulia McDonnell
Nieto del Rio

[SeeDetention,B4]

Judge rules

asylum lawsuit

can proceed

The case contends

the U.S. government

is illegally turning

away migrants at

the border. B

New details in

Poway shooting

Unsealed search

warrants show man

charged in synagogue

shooting bought gun

in San Diego. B

Navy jet crashes

in Death Valley

The accident leaves

seven visitors with

minor injuries. The

status of the pilot

remains unknown. B

Conviction

is overturned

A federal court

says a man who

plotted to put a judge

through a wood

chipper was wrongly

deemed incapable

of representing

himself at trial. B

A giant of

Broadway

Hal Prince, director

and producer of

groundbreaking

shows, dies at 91. B

Lottery......................A

Weather....................B