SANTA MARIA - The Santa Barbara County District Attorney says the deadly shooting of Santa Maria Police Officer Albert Covarrubias Jr. last January was justified.
Nowhere in DA Joyce Dudley's 18-page report on the County Sheriff's Department investigation into the shooting is Santa Maria Police Chief Dan Macagni's name mentioned, only the officers beneath his command are named in the report.
It indicates Chief Macagni had no direct role either in the investigation or the attempted arrest of Officer Covarrubias which went terribly wrong.
Sensing he was being investigated by his own department for having an illegal sexual relationship with a 17 year old female Explorer Scout he worked closely with, the DA's report says Officer Albert Covarrubias Jr. and the girl, identified only as Jane Doe, exchanged text messages on the day before he was killed.
According to the DA's report, Covarrubias texted Jane Doe saying, "I'm nervous too baby, have you said anything?"
Another reads "I don't know, if I get caught I'm done."
The DA's report says later that night before the shooting, Santa Maria Police investigating the alleged relationship monitored what was a "pretext" phone call between Covarrubias and Jane Doe in which she tells Covarrubias she's pregnant with their child.
Covarrubias, according to the DA's report is quoted as saying, "well you can't tell them about us, I'll go to jail, so just deny anything, we'll take it from there."
The DA report also says Covarrubias is quoted in the phone call as saying "You know to be honest with you I won't go to jail, just say you don't know who's it is, but like I said if it gets out that its mine, if you tell anybody or if this is a set-up, I'm done girl."
Fearing Covarrubias had become suicidal, Santa Maria Police officers investigating the case decided to arrest Covarrubias on the scene of a DUI checkpoint where he was finishing up duty early in the morning.
According to the DA's report, there was a struggle between two sergeants and Covarrubias who was resisting arrest and had also fired several rounds from his gun.
The DA's report quotes Sgt. Chris Nartatez, who happened to be Covarrubias's cousin, shouting for help from other officers on the scene.
"They were attempting to get his gun away from him", says Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley, "there was what Officer Kline described as a "fight for life", there were people yelling "gun, gun, he has a gun", Officer Covarrubias wouldn't let go of his gun and everyone feared that he was going to fire off yet another shot and then Officer Kline shot Officer Covarrubias.
Kline, who happened to be Covarrubias's best friend on the police force, fired three rounds at Covarrubias, according to the DA's report, two of the bullets hitting Covarrubias in the neck which proved to be deadly.
The DA's report quotes Kline as becoming increasingly agitated as soon as he realized he had just killed his best friend.
The City of Santa Maria says while the DA's report calls the shooting of Officer Covarrubias lawful its just one piece of larger puzzle the city is putting together with the help of ongoing investigations into one of the darkest chapters in the history of Santa Maria Police Department.
"What we have done is we have contracted with outside investigators to come in and take a look at our (police) operations from an internal standpoint and also from a departmental standpoint", says Santa Maria City Manager Rick Haydon, "this is one piece of the puzzle, we're really taking a look at the whole investigation in totality."
"The Sheriff's investigation was one piece, we're doing our own internal investigation and this will be a major component to that", Haydon says, "the Office of Independent Review will also be conducting an investigation within the department basically looking at a police audit of best management practices within the department. Our intent is to ask the public to please be patient with us, we understand that this is a lengthy process, however we want to be very thorough in our investigation."
It remains to be seen if Santa Maria Police Officer Matthew Kline will be given the green light to return to duty or if he will ever come back on the job.
Albert Covarrubias Sr. was very close with his son Albert Jr.
Central Coast News tried to get Albert Sr. or someone from the Covarrubias family to respond to the findings in the DA's report but there was no answer at the front door of the family home in Santa Maria.
In the immediate days after the shooting of his son, Albert Covarrubias Sr. was outspoken about his anger and frustration with how the Santa Maria Police Department handled both the investigation of his son's alleged relationship with the 17 year old Explorer Scout and the attempted arrest of his son on that fateful night back in January.
