Two Found Guilty in 2008 Murder of Fairfield City Councilman; Court Upholds Ruling

The murder convictions of two men in the mistaken-identity slaying of a Fairfield city councilman in 2008 were upheld by a state appeals court in San Francisco today.

In the pair of rulings, a three-judge Court of Appeal panel unanimously upheld the first-degree murder conviction of Henry Don Williams and second-degree murder conviction of Gene Allen Combs in the fatal shooting of City Councilman Matt Garcia, 22, on Sept. 1, 2008.

Garcia, the youngest person ever elected to the City Council, was gunned down as he was talking to a woman friend in the driveway of her house on Silverado Drive in Fairfield on that Labor Day evening.

Prosecutors said Williams mistook Garcia for a drug dealer, Ryan Estes, who had cheated Combs by taking $50 for methamphetamine earlier that day and then failing to give him the drug.

The two men were convicted in separate, consecutive trials before juries in the court of Solano County Superior Court Judge Robert Bowers in Vallejo in 2009.

Williams, 36, of Fairfield, was sentenced by Bowers to 50 years to life in prison.

Combs, 49, of Suisun City, who was found guilty of second-degree murder for aiding and abetting the killing, was sentenced to 15 years to life.

Witnesses said Williams and Combs had gone to the neighborhood in a Dodge Intrepid driven by Williams' girlfriend, Nicole Stewart, to confront Estes about the drug deal.

Stewart testified that after Garcia drove up behind her car in a Cadillac and then got out, Williams left the Dodge and she heard gunshots.

Garcia was hit in the back of his head by one bullet. Combs had bought the gun used in the shooting for Williams several weeks earlier.

Williams, who testified in his own defense, claimed Combs was the shooter, but his jury determined that he fired the fatal bullet.

The appeals court rejected a series of appeal claims raised by the two men, including arguments that their trials should have been moved out of Solano County because extensive news coverage of Garcia's death could have prejudiced jurors.

In both cases, the court upheld Bowers' conclusion that the news coverage had been "fairly neutral and factual" rather than inflammatory, and that while the young councilman was somewhat prominent, "there was no evidence he was well-known throughout all of Solano County."

The two defendants did not prove they could not receive a fair trial in the county, Court of Appeal Justice Kathleen Banke wrote in the rulings. She was joined in upholding the convictions by Justices Sandra Margulies and Robert Dondero.