Rancho Calaveras man to face trial for roommate’s slaying

A Rancho Calaveras man will stand trial for second-degree murder in the shooting death of his roommate during a June 27 incident at the small house the two shared for about seven years. 

Victim Michael Ferrier, 51, died July 8 in a Sacramento-area hospital as a result of a gunshot wound to the abdomen.
 

 A recording of his 911 call after the incident was played during a preliminary hearing for accused killer Robert Friend, 58, in Calaveras County Superior Court Thursday.

A dispatcher told Ferrier deputies were waiting outside and tried to establish the identity and whereabouts of his shooter.

“They need to come in,” Ferrier said of the deputies.

When asked who shot him, Ferrier told the dispatcher, “My roommate.”

“What’s his name?” she asked.

“Robert Friend,” Ferrier replied.

As the two-minute long recording finished, the dispatcher’s attempts to communicate with Ferrier were met with silence.

“Mike’s not responding to me anymore,” she radioed deputies. “He just wants us to please hurry and come in.”

Ferrier exited the Stinson View Road residence and was transported to Mercy San Juan Hospital in Carmichael. He lost consciousness while talking with a deputy, Calaveras County Sheriff’s Detective Heather Cammisa testified.

Cammisa said deputies could not make contact with Friend via a public address system and a standoff with the SWAT unit ensued, with several hours passing before SWAT members made a forced entry to the home. Friend was arrested without further incident.

A blood sample taken from Friend soon after the arrest showed his blood-alcohol level to be .30, nearly quadruple the legal limit.

Cammisa said she found the house was in “extremely poor condition. There was garbage, feces, urine, clutter, dirty clothes all around the house. It was impossible to step anywhere without stepping in garbage or feces.”

In the room where Friend had been captured, Cammisa said two .22-caliber firearms were recovered, one of which had apparently jammed. Ferrier told dispatchers Friend had tried to fire a second shot at him when the gun misfired.

In a June 28 police interview with Friend that also played during the hearing, the defendant told Cammisa and another investigator Ferrier had been “irate and crazy” prior to the shooting.
He also told detectives Ferrier had assaulted him on three occasions prior to the incident.

“It was self-defense .. I’m tired of him roughing me up. Let’s put it that way,” Friend said.

He also explained the incident began when Ferrier became upset that Friend forgot his shopping list on a trip to the store.

“He was getting on my ass today and I shot his ass. I’m tired of it,” Friend said. “I shot him because I’m tired of it.”

Friend said he had been sitting in a chair when Ferrier walked toward him and he shot him in the abdomen.

“If I wanted to kill that guy, I would have shot him in the head,” Friend said. “I’m a pretty good shot.”

Ferrier, described by detectives as 6 feet, 2 inches tall, and 280 pounds, had been dressed in only underwear and slippers at the time he was shot, testified Detective Rick DiBasilio.

 The slighter Friend, 5 feet, 9 inches tall and 170 pounds, according to driver’s license records, showed detectives old bruising on his right rib cage area, about the size of a softball and told police the injuries were from an attack by Ferrier, Cammisa said.

Friend’s attorney, Scott Gross, argued his client suffers from battered person syndrome.

“(Ferrier) was terrorizing Mr. Friend. Mr. Ferrier is a much larger man than my client. My client, in his state of mind, felt he needed to defend himself,” Gross said. “At some point in time, (the battered) snap. They react and defend themselves.”

“The defendant’s statements of self-defense, they’re underwhelming,” responded Deputy District Attorney Jeff Stone.

Judge Thomas A. Smith found probable cause to move forward to an Aug. 17 arraignment. Friend remains held at the Calaveras County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail.

A tearful Michele Gray, 46, of Stockton, sat through Thursday’s hearing and said afterward that Ferrier would not have committed the violent acts Friend spoke of.