Judge reprimands OC leadership of Paul Gentile Smith murder investigation – Orange County Register

Judge Daniel Goldstein hears People v. Paul Gentile Smith on Monday, June 10, 2024, in San Diego, Calif. (Alejandro Tamayo, The San Diego Union-Tribune)

The judge in the upcoming retrial of murder defendant Paul Gentile Smith sharply criticized prosecutors and detectives involved in the investigation on Tuesday, June 18, after a week of testimony about mishandling of evidence showed that the system for processing criminal cases in Orange County is disorganized.

San Diego County Superior Court Judge Daniel Goldstein appeared upset after none of the witnesses could explain why the defense never received key evidence. Witnesses, including retired sheriff’s investigators and a former high-ranking prosecutor, struggled to describe Orange County’s recording system during the 2010 trial, and no one seemed clear about how evidence was supposed to be passed on to the attorneys.

In addition, there did not appear to be a central list of evidence in the Smith case, according to statements from investigators and former prosecutor Ebrahim Baytieh, now an Orange County Superior Court judge.

“At least it seems nice to me to describe the investigation by the prosecution, the defense and law enforcement as haphazard,” Goldstein said. “It just seems like this is a disaster waiting to happen.”

“I don’t get it, folks,” the judge continued. “I’m tempted to go to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and see what they’re doing.”

The case was transferred to Goldstein and San Diego to avoid a conflict because Baytieh is now a judge in Orange County. Smith’s conviction for the 1988 stabbing murder of his childhood friend in Sunset Beach was overturned in 2021 after it was determined that no evidence was presented to the defense. The evidence included reports and recordings that suggested several jailhouse informants were used against Smith, violating his right to have an attorney present during questioning.

Smith’s current attorney, Orange County Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders, is urging Goldstein to drop the murder charge entirely due to the prosecution’s “outrageous government conduct.”

Goldstein’s patience seemed to run out Tuesday after retired sheriff’s sergeant Ray Wert described a lax process for turning over copies of evidence to prosecutors. Sometimes he, as the lead homicide detective, would turn the evidence over to them or have someone else do it. Or the prosecutor would come to the sheriff’s office. Or the evidence would sit on the prosecutor’s desk.

In any case, Wert testified that he kept the evidence and believed it had been turned over to the prosecution and defense, as required by law.

Last week, Baytieh acknowledged that it was his job to turn over evidence to the defense in the Smith case, but he was dependent on investigators to provide it to him. Baytieh, however, testified that he never asked to review all of the evidence.

When asked by Goldstein, Sanders said he did not know if the original defense team went to the sheriff’s department to review all the evidence.

Goldstein could hardly believe that a lawyer in a murder case would not review all the evidence before trial.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department has a long history of improper evidence handling. A 2018 audit of the department found that officers booked evidence too late — if at all. Reforms have been made to streamline the evidence booking system, which Wert calls “archaic.”