SAN DIEGO _ A Superior Court judge in San Diego ruled Thursday that 17 search warrants that were obtained by police investigating the April 27 shooting at the Chabad of Poway will be unsealed, granting a motion from a coalition of local media including The San Diego Union-Tribune that sought access to the secret documents.
Presiding Judge Peter Deddeh in a brief hearing said there was no legal reason to keep the warrants under seal any longer. Lawyers for John T. Earnest, the 19-year-old charged in the shooting spree, and the San Diego County District Attorney's Office did not object to unsealing the record.
Prosecutors, however, asked that names of civilian witnesses and police investigators be redacted, or blacked out, before the documents are released. The media coalition did not object to that condition.
Deddeh said the redacted records would become public no later than next Thursday.
Earnest is facing charges in state and federal courts in connection with the attack, which killed one person and injured three others. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, which include hate-crime allegations.
Earnest, who wrote a racist, anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic screed describing his motivations for the attack and posted it online before the shooting, was arrested minutes after the shooting. Federal court records say he told police that he was responsible for the shootings and surrendered without incident.
Federal and local authorities conducted an intensive investigation in the days after the shooting, serving at least 10 search warrants on the first day alone. But those documents, which outline where authorities went, what they sought, and the reasons why they did so, have been under seal.
State law, however, says that search warrants become public records 10 days after they have been executed. Elizabeth Baldridge, the lawyer for the media organizations, argued in court papers that the shooting and the resulting investigation were "matters of significant public interest," and unsealing the warrants would bring much-needed transparency to the case.
"The occurrence of hate crimes such as those alleged in the Poway Shooting is of significant public interest," Baldridge wrote. "The nature of the crimes at issue here, and their profound and sustained impact on the victims, families, and loved ones also calls out for a transparent process to ensure confidence in the judicial process and eventual outcome, and to provide therapeutic value to the community through an open judicial process that instills confidence that justice is being served."
Earnest is facing murder, attempted murder, arson and gun charges in state court, and more than 100 charges in San Diego federal court, including obstruction of free exercise of religious beliefs using a dangerous weapon resulting in death, bodily injury and attempts to kill. He also faces hate-crime charges under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act. Charges in each case make him eligible for the death penalty.
He also faces charges in both courts linked to a March 24 fire at a mosque in Escondido.
Armed with an assault rifle and 60 rounds of ammunition, Earnest barged into the Chabad of Poway during Passover services and opened fire, authorities say. Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, was killed and three others were injured, including the rabbi and an 8-year-old child.
Court records said that surveillance footage appears to show that Earnest had trouble reloading the weapon and when some congregants charged him, he fled.
After Earnest fled, he called 911 from his car and told the dispatcher he had attacked the synagogue, and said he did so "to defend my nation from the Jewish people," according to court records. Inside the vehicle, police found a helmet with a Go-Pro camera on it, an indication that Earnest may have intended to live stream the assault.
