Voices told murder defendant to shoot 2 people at SLO County beach, lawyer says at trial

The trial against the man accused of shooting and killing a San Pedro man and his nephew over a disagreement about a Morro Strand State Beach camping space began Monday — more than two decades after the alleged crime took place.

Prosecutors say Stephen Arthur Deflaun killed Stephen Wells, 37, and his 11-year-old nephew, Jerry Rios Jr., on July 8, 2001.

Deflaun was arrested at the scene, but has not faced trial until this week.

The 63-year-old, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, was never expected to be competent enough to stand trial, a forensic psychologist said in a 2004 court hearing, but that changed in April 2022.

Deflaun is charged with two counts of murder with a firearm and one count of assaulting a peace officer with a firearm, in this case a California State Parks ranger.

Deflaun entered two pleas in June to his charges: not guilty and not guilty by reason of insanity.

In his opening statements Monday in San Luis Obispo Superior Court, San Luis Obispo County Assistant District Attorney Eric Dobroth called the fatal shootout “shocking, deliberate escalation” worthy of first-degree murder convictions.

Tim Osman, one of Deflaun’s attorneys, said he believes the evidence shown at trial will show Deflaun did factually kill Wells and Rios Jr., but that Deflaun wasn’t at fault.

The voices in Deflaun’s head told him that killing Wells and the child he believed was Wells’ accomplice was the only way Deflaun would survive being assassinated, Osman said.

DA: Defendant and victim argued before shootout

On Monday, Dobroth laid out the basic facts of the case to the jury and previewed witnesses they will hear from and evidence they will see.

On July 8, 2001, Stephen Wells and his wife, Elizabeth “Betsy” Wells were on a weeks-long road trip with her three children and their nephew when they stopped in San Luis Obispo County, Dobroth said.

They had a large recreational vehicle, the prosecutor said, so the woman operating the entrance and exit kiosk at Morro Strand State Beach told them to drive around to look for a large campsite and return to the entrance.

At one of the large campsites, there was a lone brown camper van, Dobroth said.

Stephen Wells asked the two oldest kids — 11-year-old cousins Brian Wells and Jerry Rios Jr. — to ask the driver of the van, later identified as Deflaun, if he planned to stay at the campsite, Dobroth said.

Deflaun brushed them off, and Stephen Wells sent the kids back to the van to clarify if he was going to stay overnight, the prosecutor said.

That’s when Deflaun yelled at the children, Dobroth said, prompting Stephen Wells to yell back something to the effect of “If you have a problem, don’t take it out on the boys, take it out on me.”

According to Dobroth, the heated conversation ended with Wells telling Deflaun he was going to report him to the park rangers, which is what he did.

Wells then drove up to the kiosk and parked out of the way, the prosecutor said.

After Wells and the two boys walked up to the kiosk and talked to the park ranger dispatch, Dobroth said, Deflaun was seen walking toward the kiosk pointing a gun at Stephen Wells.

Which person was shot first was unclear, Dobroth said, but Stephen Wells was shot four times — under his right eye, in the left side of his head, in his right bicep and left knee — while Rios Jr. was shot twice, in the center of his forehead and upper left of his neck.

Rios Jr. died at the scene, and Wells died later at the hospital, Dobroth said.

Brian Wells ran away from Deflaun in search of safety and saw Deflaun heading toward his family’s RV, the prosecutor said.

Wells yelled to his mom and two siblings to shut the door, but Deflaun entered the RV anyways, Dobroth said.

According to the prosecutor, Deflaun asked Betsy Wells if she had a gun while he had a gun pointed at her two children. When she responded no, DeFlaun allegedly replied, “Why’d you have to f--k with me?”

A shootout then ensued between Deflaun and the park rangers, which eventually ended after Deflaun was injured and “gave up,” Dobroth said.

Deflaun was arrested at the scene, and has been in the jail and state hospital systems ever since.

On Monday, Dobroth said he plans to call several eye witnesses who saw the shootout, including family members, park rangers and first responders, and told the jury he believes the evidence will support murder convictions in the first-degree.

Defense: Voices in defendant’s head told him to kill

According to his defense attorney, Deflaun has lived with serious mental illness since he was a teenager.

Osman told the jury Monday that he fully anticipates they will find Deflaun responsible for the deaths of Stephen Wells and Rios Jr.

However, Osman said that the evidence he and his fellow attorney, Ray Allen, plan to present will show Deflaun is “deeply and profoundly ill” and was not medicated at the time of the incident.

“He’s been subject to incessant torment, pain, discomfort, anxiety — all of his brain’s own making,” Osman said.

When Deflaun takes the stand later in the trial, Osman said the jury will learn how Deflaun was “intimidated by voices in his head and how hopeless he felt.”

The defense attorney said the voices in Deflaun’s head, which Deflaun referred to as “the program,” were waging a war against him.

The day of the shooting, Osman said, Deflaun’s voices told him he shouldn’t leave his van because he will be captured by “the nefarious actors of the program.”

When Rios Jr. and his cousin came to Deflaun’s van the second time, Osman said, Deflaun told them “Are you stupid or something?”

Stephen Wells responded, “Don’t talk to my kids that way,” displayed his middle finger and “challenged him to fight,” the defense attorney said.

When Wells left, his arms were outstretched like Jesus on the cross, which made Deflaun believe it was a sign from God, Osman said.

According to the defense attorney, the voices told Deflaun that Wells was an assassin sent to kill him, and that if Deflaun killed Wells first, Wells would be converted to Christianity and hundreds of lives would be saved.

Osman said Deflaun shot Wells “scared for his life,” then shot Rios Jr. moments later believing he was another assassin.

Deflaun didn’t shoot anyone else after Wells and Rios Jr. were killed, Osman said, adding that the park ranger who engaged in the shootout will testify Deflaun was waving his gun around and yelling at himself.

Osman said the defense plans to call forensic psychologists, doctors and Deflaun himself to talk about how Deflaun’s mental illness played a role in the fatal shooting.

The defense attorney told the jury he expects them to be able to view the tragic event that occurred July 8, 2001, from multiple perspectives.

Surviving family members take the stand

Betsy Wells and her son, Brian Wells, took the stand Monday after opening statements, walking the jury moment-by-moment through what became one of the most traumatic days of their lives.

Betsy Wells said she had just graduated nursing school when she and her family decided to take a long vacation and rent an RV.

Wells said the plan was to drive up the California coast, then go inland at the Oregon coast to visit family members. From there, she said, they would loop back and visit family in Central California.

Wells and her family were toward the beginning of their trip when they decided to camp at Morro Strand State Beach, she said.

When the argument at the campsite took place between her husband and Deflaun, she said she could hear escalated voices that sounded angry, but couldn’t hear what they were saying.

She said her husband told her Deflaun’s van smelled like weed and that he was going to report him to the park rangers.

Betsy Wells stayed in the RV with her two youngest kids while her husband, son and nephew went out to the park kiosk to report Deflaun.

Suddenly she heard two loud gunshots, and watched her husband fall to the ground, Wells recalled.

Wells saw bystanders with “a horror look” on their face. she said, then she saw Deflaun shoot her husband again while he was on the ground.

That’s when she yelled for her two children to get under the kitchen table, and she called 911 on her cell phone, Wells said.

While she was on the phone, Wells said, the door to the RV burst open and Deflaun began yelling at her, asking if she had a gun.

She said she dropped her phone because she didn’t want it to be a reason she got shot.

“I said, ‘No, please, I have two small kids here, please,’ ” Wells testified.

She said Deflaun asked her a second time if she had a gun and she told him she didn’t.

“Then he yelled, ‘Why’d you have to f--k with me?’ and then slammed the door,” she said.

Wells said she saw her 11-year-old nephew later covered in a body bag, explaining that’s how she knew he died at the scene.

Paramedics were still treating her husband as police arrived and arrested Deflaun, Wells said.

Brian Wells said his cousin, Jerry Rios Jr., was the one who knocked and did the talking at Deflaun’s van.

According to statements Brian Wells made to law enforcement days after the shooting, Deflaun told the two cousins “You better get your punk a-- out of here or I’ll kick your little a--es” and Stephen Wells told Deflaun “Don’t talk to my kids that way” and “You better get out out the car if you want to fight.”

Brian Wells said his cousin Jerry Rios Jr. was his best friend, and the two were goofing around at the kiosk when Stephen Wells was reporting Deflaun’s van to the park ranger.

That changed when Brian Wells saw Deflaun with his gun coming near the kiosk.

He said Deflaun said, “Man, you shouldn’t have f--ked with me,” before shooting Rios Jr..

Seconds later, Brian Wells said, he saw his uncle fall to the ground.

Then he ran for his life.

“I was terrified,” Brian Wells said. “I had just seen my cousin die in front of me.”

Wells said he hid behind a parked car in the vicinity of the RV, and saw Deflaun walking toward the RV.

Brian Wells said he yelled to his mom in the RV, “He’s coming! Close the door!” which prompted Deflaun to point his gun at Wells and yell at him to “shut up.”

Wells later reunited with his mom in the RV, and knew law enforcement arrived when he heard them say things like “Get on the ground.”

What’s next

Heidi Hodak, who was a 20-year-old Cal Poly student working at the Morro Strand State Beach entrance and exit kiosk in 2001, began her testimony on Monday shortly before the end of the court day.

Prosecutors played a recorded call between Hodak and State Parks dispatch, reporting Deflaun before the shooting, for the court.

During the call, Hodak hands the phone to Stephen Wells, who tells dispatchers that Deflaun had threatened his children and smelled like marijuana.

Hodak is expected to finish her testimony when court resumes Tuesday at 10 a.m.