Crime & Safety

Details of Fatal October Chase Revealed in Inquest

Joseph Smith, 46, of Arizona, was the innocent victim who died as a result of a crash at the end of a police pursuit in Concord on Oct. 25, 2011.

A Concord police Officer drove after two men in their Ford F-150 pickup truck the afternoon of Oct. 25, 2011 when he spotted them both on their cellphones and started to suspect that the pair might be involved in a recent homicide.

Those details emerged during a Contra Costa County coroner's office inquest Wednesday morning for Joseph Smith, an Arizona man who was killed when Concord men Mauro Gutierrez, 25, and Joshua Simmons, 24, broadsided his BMW sedan while fleeing from Golinveaux that afternoon, according to police.

Smith, 46, was found to have died from multiple blunt impact injuries, forensic Dr. Ikechi Ogan said Wednesday.

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Officer Daniel Golinveaux, of the Concord Police Department, told a jury Wednesday how he attempted to make a traffic stop to issue a distracted driving citation when he saw the two men on their cellphones that day.

But the truck, driven by Gutierrez, sped away on Hillside Avenue near Overhill Road after the two spotted the officer in his marked patrol car, Golinveaux said.

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"They both looked at me - kind of a paranoid, startled look," he recalled. Simmons continued to look back at the officer as the pair fled the patrol car, the officer said.

Driving at about 45 to 50 miles per hour, Simmons and Gutierrez drove along Solano Way, with Golinveaux trailing behind.

When the officer came to a bend in the roadway at the southbound on-ramp to state Highway 242 at Grant Street, he briefly lost sight of the suspects' truck, he said.

Once he reached the intersection, Golinveaux saw the two men running from their truck.

Along with another Concord police officer, he apprehended and arrested the two suspects.

A short time later, Golinveaux saw Smith's car, which sustained "significant damage" and stopped on the roadway's center median, he said. He then learned that Smith had died from his injuries.

Golinveaux said that in addition to pursuing the two suspects for distracted driving, he also noticed that they resembled people who were connected to a nearby house where a murder had recently taken place.

"I had some concerns that these people could be involved in this homicide," he said.

Both men have been charged with murder for Smith's death and are awaiting trial.

The jury reached a verdict today that Smith died at the hands of another person, other than by accident. 

In Contra Costa County, a coroner's inquest is held whenever a death involves a police officer.

- Bay City News Service


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