By GABRIELLA BOCK | Reporter
Julie Schy was collecting her laundry on Aug. 11, 2014 when she walked in on a man standing in her second-story bedroom.
“He told me to give him my car or else he would kill me,” Schy testified on the first day of trial for the man prosecutors say forcefully carjacked the vehicles of three Pacific Palisades women—one of whom had been aggressively kidnapped.
The bench trial for Brian Thomas Cruz, 47, opened March 1, 2017 at the Los Angeles County Airport Courthouse.
Cruz is accused of 22 criminal counts, including kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, multiple car-jackings and reckless driving causing injury.
The District Attorney’s office said this all took place during a 45-minute crime spree.
The transient man allegedly began the day kidnapping a retired woman in Marquez Knolls, demanding that she drive him to the San Fernando Valley. She escaped by crashing her car.
He then allegedly tried to get away by stealing two other vehicles, including a Toyota owned by Palisades Charter High School teacher Dominque Vincent, before colliding with another car in Malibu.
The prosecution, led by Deputy District Attorney Eugene Hanrahan, called Schy as the first witness.
Schy, who runs Mommy Rocks Cookies, owns the house on Sunset Boulevard where Cruz allegedly made his final stop of the day.
Schy told the court that at 7:50 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 11, 2017, Cruz had illegally entered her home and demanded that she hand over the keys to her car.
“He didn’t look normal,” Schy recollected. “He was extremely tan, skinny and was sweating profusely. He seemed frantic, like he was looking for something he had lost.”
Armed with what she thought was a gun, Cruz followed Schy downstairs to find her set of keys.
Claiming that he was “marked,” Cruz then demanded that the 51-year-old baked goods entrepreneur give him new clothing to wear.
Schy said that she handed over her grey jacket to change into before giving him the keys to her white Lexus RX350 SUV. “I didn’t think I would survive,” Schy said.
Cruz’s attorney, Deputy Defender Bart Seemen questioned Schy about the tone of the conversation.
“He spoke in a normal manner,” Schy said. “His words were clear and he was easy to understand.”
With Cruz behind the wheel, driving at speeds of up to 70 mph, heading west on PCH towards Ventura, there was a collision with another vehicle near the junction of Malibu Canyon Road.
The Lexus collided with a Honda driven by Deborah Prado, accompanied by her son. They suffered multiple bone fractures and were airlifted to UCLA
medical center.
On the second day of trial, Thursday, March 2, the prosecution called Joan Forde to the witness stand.
When asked to recount the events that took place on Aug. 11, 2014, the 87-year-old Palisadian woman said that she had woken up to find Cruz standing in her bedroom at her 100 block of Marquez Avenue apartment.
“At first I thought he was my grandson,” Forde told the court. “I knew that he wasn’t, but a part of me was trying to make him into someone I recognized.”
Forde recounted the brief time she had spent with the defendant, saying that he seemed agitated and paranoid.
“I tried to hug him, but he pushed me onto my bed and then onto the ground,” Forde said. “I don’t know why he pushed me.”
Armed with a box cutter, Forde said that Cruz had forced her into her green Infiniti G25 and told her to drive him to the San Fernando Valley.
Knowing that she was incapable of driving on the freeway, Forde purposely crashed her car into a parked truck before fleeing the scene of the accident.
During her testimony, Hanrahan presented photographic evidence of the bruising Forde sustained on her arms, wrists and elbows.
Upon seeing the photos, Forde gasped in disbelief.
“I know that it’s me,” Forde noted. “But it’s still so terrible to look at.”
After a break on medical grounds, Cruz’s trial was set to continue on Tuesday, March 7.
In December 2016, Cruz reportedly waived his right to a jury trial, claiming that his peers would not provide him with a fair hearing. Without accepting the offered guilty plea bargain, the defendant leaves the final verdict up to Judge Lauren Weis-Birnstein.
Although the three doctors who have reportedly examined Cruz have certified him to be competent, the defendant plead “not-guilty-by-reasons-of-insanity” (NGI).
Should Weis-Birnstein find him guilty of the charges he’s been accused of, the trial will then move into an insanity trial, which will determine the defendant’s sentencing.
If convicted, Cruz, who has served time in prison on other charges, faces multiple consecutive life sentences.
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