Editor's note: This story has been updated to include more information about a 2004 robbery discussed during the murder trial.
Jurors began deliberating in a 2016 Oxnard murder case Friday to possibly decide whether the shooting was an act of revenge over a 2004 robberyor a case of self-defense.
Christopher Gaston, 39, of Oxnard, was charged with first-degree murder in the June 25, 2016, death of Christopher Camper, 32, of Oxnard. Camper was gunned down while standing near a bus stop on Ventura Road near Gonzales Road, Oxnard police said.
Gaston was arrested about a month later and charged. He was also accused of personally discharging a gun as well as two special circ*mstances alleging he was lying in wait before killing Camper from inside his gray Cadillac.
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Gaston has pleaded not guilty to murder and denied the other allegations. He took the stand during his nearly three-week trial to testify about the shooting, saying he had been at the nearby Chicago Deli & Mini Mart earlier in the day.
He said he returned minutes later because he couldn’t find his cellphone. While he was there, there was an exchange with Camper near the bus stop and he saw the victim pull out a gun, he testified. In self-defense, Gaston pulled out his gun and fired at the victim, he testified.
Gastonhad been the victim of a robbery he said was allegedly committed by Camper in 2004. Camper was never convicted of thecrime Gaston said he was involved in.
Gaston’s former girlfriend, who was there during the robbery, testified about the incident as well as testifying that Gaston would always have his gun on him.
Closing arguments in the trial spanned all of Thursday and most of Friday morning.
Gaston’s defense attorney David Lehr said his client knew that Camper had robbed him before, carried a gun and was a gang member. All that information was in his mind when he shot Camper that day in self-defense, Lehr argued. He told jurors it makes sense to analyze his client’s bias when considering his testimony, but urged them not to assume he’s lying, as the prosecution suggests.
Lehr said his client “had to get up and tell his side of the story so you get the full picture.”
The defense argued that Camper flagged down Gaston as he drove by and there was a conversation between the pair. A defense witness testified seeing Camper lean forward. But the prosecution argues Camper did nothing to provoke the driver of the Cadillac.
Camper was no Boy Scout, said Senior Deputy District Attorney Tate McCallister. He was not an innocent victim.
“Chris Camper was a drug dealer,” McCallister said. But that didn’t mean he deserved to die.
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McCallister said there were witnesses to the shooting who testified at trial about Camper not having a gun. No gun was ever found at the scene and there was no evidence of gunfire on buildings in the direction Camper would have been firing. Furthermore, there was no evidence of gunfire on the outside of Gaston’s Cadillac.
However, a bullet was found in the door frame on the front passenger side of the vehicle that appears to have gotten there while Gaston was shooting the gun from the driver’s seat, McCallister said. The alleged murder weapon was never found, and surveillance video shows Gaston driving away from the scene, McCallister said. Gaston never called 911 to tell authorities about the incident he claims occurred in self-defense, McCallister said.
But surveillance video shows more than just Gaston’s car fleeing the scene, the prosecutor argued. It shows how Gaston “stalked and executed an unarmed man,” McCallister said.
Video evidence shows Camper arrived at the deli as Gaston and his friends were leaving. Gaston’s friends testified to the nature of the conversation they had with Camper in the parking lot, McCallister said.
Gaston and friends left, but minutes later, he returned alone to the deli in his Cadillac to kill Camper, McCallister said.
For at least 10 minutes, Gaston watched Camper as he was in front of the deli, poking his head around the building, the video shows. Video shows Gaston circling the block and coming back to the parking lot, allegedly keeping an eye on Camper’s whereabouts, McCallister argued. When Camper walked out to the street, Gaston drove his Cadillac out of the parking lot, turned onto Gonzales Road and then Ventura Road and up to the bus stop Camper was near, McCallister said.
Then the shooting occurred, out of the camera’s view.
“That’s the anatomy of a murder right there on video; you saw it with your own eyes,” McCallister told jurors.
The special circ*mstances alleged in the case meant Gaston would be eligible for the death penalty, but the prosecution declined to seek capital punishment. If convicted of the charges and the special circ*mstances, Gaston faces life in prison.
The defendant’s family sat behind him in Courtroom 47 watching the case unfold. Camper’s loved ones did the same from behind the prosecution’s table. The victim’s family and the defendant’s family knew each other before the shooting happened.
At times during closing arguments, Camper’s family was visibly upset. But Lehr reminded jurors that sympathy is not supposed to impact their deliberations and decision. He said they were to think critically, reasonably and logically.
According to the defense, it doesn’t make sense that Gaston did not take advantage of at least seven opportunities to shoot Camper at close range if he wanted to kill him, Lehr argued.
“It makes perfectly logical sense that he went back to get the phone,” Lehr argued, and not to kill Camper.
Megan Diskin is a courts and breaking news reporter with The Star. Reach her at megan.diskin@vcstar.com or805-437-0258.
