A La Jolla woman testified Wednesday her ex-boyfriend scaled a wall to reach her upstairs condominium balcony and then he pointed a gun at her.
The woman told a judge she ran out the door with her dog and phone after Michael Anthony Davee, 52, of Pacific Beach, also pointed the gun at his own head at one point.
“He said he was going to hurt me or himself. I was shaking,” said the victim. “I was upset. I was shocked.”
After almost a day-long preliminary hearing, San Diego Superior Court Judge David Gill ordered Davee to stand trial for assault with a deadly weapon, stalking, and making a criminal threat in the Sept. 22 incident. Gill also ordered Davee to stand trial for three counts of possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon, receiving a firearm while under a temporary restraining order, resisting an officer, and disobeying a court order.
Davee was ordered to next appear in court on Dec. 22 to schedule setting of a trial date in 2017. He has pleaded not guilty.
The woman said she saw him “crawl between two trees” in order to reach her balcony around 1:45 p.m. She said the first thing he asked her was “why aren’t you going to have lunch with me?” She said she had ignored his text messages about lunch.
“I said ‘Let’s talk. Why do you have a gun?” she recalled.
“He said one of us is going to be hurt,” she quoted Davee as telling her.
She said the gun was pointed at her for several minutes and the barrel was 11 inches from her face. His attorney, Daniel Moaddel, did a demonstration with his fingers to mimic a gun and asked her to estimate the time in silence as to how long it occurred. It was 12 seconds long, noted the judge and Moaddel after consulting the courtroom clock. Gill told her that time passes fast during a threat and it may seem like a long time when it actually is brief.
She said she and Davee dated from September 2015 to March and she went to family court to obtain a restraining order against him. She testified he broke into her home a number of times despite her changing the locks three times.
“He told me he had a police issued tool to break into my home,” she said.
Once she was in the shower when Davee broke into her home, and two other times he was in her unit when she got home from work.
San Diego Police officer Christopher Krumrei testified he went to Davee’s residence in the 1700 block of Law Street in Pacific Beach. Krumrei said he encountered Davee who lifted his shirt to show a gun in his waist. The officer said he ordered Davee to halt, but Davee wouldn’t comply so he ordered his canine unit to bite him.
However, the police dog instead bit a nearby gardener who also began running away. Davee dropped the gun by a tree, but went into his residence. Krumrei said he got control of the dog and then helped the injured gardener. Other officers arrived and a SWAT standoff occurred, but that was before they discovered he had fled his apartment. Some residents were evacuated. Officers checked Davee’s boat in Mission Bay, which was unoccupied.
Police officer Luis Pulido testified officers arrested Davee at the Dana Hotel in Mission Bay at 7:49 p.m. Pulido said Davee appeared to be intoxicated and had an empty gun holster in his pocket.
Detective Matthew Gagliardi testified a judge approved a warrant to search Davee’s home at 12:19 a.m., and several firearms were found along with lots of ammunition. Davee has a prior conviction for possession of illegal drugs for sale, and felons are banned from possessing weapons.
Deputy District Attorney Samira Seidu said if Davee is convicted of all charges, he could face a maximum sentence of seven years and eight months in prison. He remains in jail on $300,000 bail.