Prosecutors: Phone records place accused killer near crime

Cell phone records prove an accused murderer was in the area at the time a Costa Mesa man was killed in a drive-by shooting, prosecutors said Wednesday.

An employee from the Sprint cell phone company testified calls from a phone registered to Joshua Blount, 24, show his phone was near the scene of a drive-by shooting around 8 p.m. on Aug. 2, 2006.

Defense attorney Barry Bernstein pointed out Blount’s phone could have been up to 10 miles away from any cell phone towers Sprint uses to track its customers’ calls.

Blount, 24, is accused of killing Costa Mesa resident Israel Maciel and wounding four others in a shooting in the 1300 block of West Baker Street in 2006. No shooting in Costa Mesa has had more victims, said detective Dana Potts.

Witnesses testified Monday the driver of a silver Chevy Impala was the shooter. Some also testified that they saw Blount driving the car. Tuesday prosecutor Matt Murphy aimed to place Blount at the scene of the crime and link him to the gun.

Two men testified this morning that they got in a fight with Blount around Halloween 2004 at their parents home. John Heesch was chaperoning a party for his little sister when he saw Blount and Jason Prather, his sister’s boyfriend, get in a fight. Heesch pulled Blount off Prather and they started fighting, he testified. At its peak, the fight involved about a dozen men, Heesch testified. Blount got the worst beating, he told jurors. Blount pulled out his gun and fired eight times into the air, Murphy said.

Exactly one year after the fight, someone shot more than a dozen bullets into the home where the party was held – Heesch’s parents home, Heesch testified. He told jurors he thought the bullets were meant for him and Blount was the shooter. Heesch testified in the days following the shooting he feared for his life and would randomly see Blount and his friends around his home.

Murphy intends to prove to jurors that the same gun used in the shooting at Heesch’s home was the gun that killed Maciel in 2006.

Bernstein maintains the physical description witnesses gave of the shooter does not match Blount, and that he was not there when Maciel was shot.