CASE OF KILLING IN LINE OF DUTY SENT TO JURY

In the moments after a wild, high-speed chase, narcotics agent Mike
Walker believed he saw a fugitive parolee flash a weapon and had no
choice but to shoot, his defense attorney said.

The only problem with that, argued a prosecutor, is that the victim
was the wrong man, was unarmed and was shot in the back -- something
he called reminiscent of "the Old West."

The historic case against Walker, California's first drug enforcement
agent charged with killing in the line of duty, ended on Wednesday as
dramatically as it began. Spending a total of eight hours with
closing arguments, the two sides urged jurors to rely on the law, the
evidence and their internal sense of justice to return a just verdict.

And with that, deliberations in the high-stakes trial began.

Walker, an agent with the elite Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, is
charged with voluntary manslaughter for firing on Rodolfo "Rudy"
Cardenas, a father of five and small-time drug dealer whom Walker
pursued and then shot in what amounts to a tragic case of mistaken identity.

Walker appeared stoic as jurors filed out of Judge Rene Navarro's San
Jose courtroom. There was a group of supporters from the Department
of Justice seated behind him in the Hall of Justice courtroom. On the
opposite side of the aisle, the Cardenas family and various outraged
citizens looked on anxiously.

For nearly two months, jurors have heard opposing versions of what
led up to the Feb. 17, 2004, shooting, which started as a simple
surveillance operation.

On that day, Walker and other agents were charged to keep watch on
the residence of David Gonzales, a parolee who was in violation for
not reporting his change of address.

When Cardenas drove past the location, Walker mistook him for
Gonzales and followed. Cardenas led the agent on a wild pursuit
through downtown streets that two San Jose police officials testified
they deemed too dangerous to join.

Walker caught up with Cardenas on North Fourth Street, where Cardenas
ditched his minivan and ran down an alleyway adjacent to the Shires
Memorial Center retirement home.

The story blurs from that point.

According to the agent, Cardenas tried to lure him in by running
slowly down the alley with his hands held suspiciously near his
waistband. After scaling a chain link fence, Cardenas turned and
revealed what Walker insists was a gun. The agent fired, and
testified in his own defense that he believed his choice was kill or be killed.

But the prosecutor disputes virtually everything Walker said.

Deputy District Attorney Lane Liroff said Cardenas did not have a gun
and that a surveillance video of the North Fourth Street site
indicates there wasn't enough time for events to have played out the
way Walker described.

Finally, three witnesses testified they did not see anything in
Cardenas' hands.

Liroff repeatedly called Walker a "cowboy" and told the jury of six
men and six women that the agent exercised "hair-trigger judgment"
that resulted in the death of an innocent man.

The high-profile case has drawn intense public scrutiny, from enraged
members of Cardenas' family and their supporters and also from
members of the law enforcement community, which believes Walker is
being unjustly prosecuted.

In his four-hour closing argument, defense attorney Craig Brown
reminded jurors of a slew of defense experts who testified that
Walker acted properly under the circumstances. And he recalled the
testimony of two medical experts who said the trajectory of the
bullet indicates Cardenas could have been turning toward the agent
when he was shot in the back.

"You have to put that badge on yourself," Brown said, addressing the
jurors for the final time Wednesday. "And with that state of mind,
standing in the shoes of Mike Walker, ask yourself, 'Would I have
done the same thing?' "

Throughout the trial, Walker insisted he saw a gun in Cardenas'
hands, even though no firearm was found. That the agent made such a
fatal mistake -- and that Cardenas was shot from behind while running
away -- was hammered into jurors' minds by prosecutor Liroff.

"The truth is when you shoot someone in the back it's the same as in
the Old West," Liroff said during his rebuttal argument. "It's not
self-defense."

Walker faces up to 11 years in prison if convicted.