A federal judge has vacated the conviction and death sentence of a San Bernardino man who killed a Rialto police sergeant in 1986, concluding he did not receive a fair trial due to racial discrimination during the jury selection process.
And now, San Bernardino County prosecutors and public defenders are at odds over whether Dennis Mayfield, now 61, should be retried for the March 3, 1986, shooting death of Sgt. Gary W. Wolfley.
Mayfield suffered a stroke on San Quentin’s death row in July 2011 and suffers from permanent brain damage that limits his speech, mobility and ability to process information. He has used a wheelchair for the past nine years.
San Bernardino County public defenders assigned to the case say Mayfield was the victim of systemic racism from the very beginning, has paid his debt to society and would not be able to get a fair trial now due to his incapacitation. They say Mayfield is no longer a threat to society and should be released from custody.
“Mr. Mayfield is a person who was treated unjustly at every stage of his case because of the color of his skin,” said San Bernardino County Public Defender G. Christopher Gardner. “The illegal jury selection is just the tip of the iceberg. His case illustrates systemic racism at its worst, and what happened to him was tantamount to a legal lynching. The result is an injustice that can never truly be remedied.”
Prosecutors want to retry Mayfield and are still pursuing the death penalty. They do not necessarily agree that Mayfield’s disability makes him incompetent to stand trial and participate in his own defense, citing his own medical and psychological evaluations.
“Any characterization at this point (Mayfield) is totally disabled is simply not accurate,” District Attorney Jason Anderson said.
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Competency questioned
Although a court-appointed psychologist has deemed Mayfield incompetent to stand trial again, Anderson said prosecutors will be requesting a second opinion from a neuropsychologist at a hearing Thursday, Oct. 22, in San Bernardino Superior Court, before Judge Lorenzo Balderrama.
“Whenever someone’s competence is called into question, I think there needs to be a significant vetting of their condition,” said Anderson, adding that his office will request either a court-appointed neuropsychologist or one of their choice to evaluate Mayfield.
Defense attorneys want Mayfield to undergo a neuropsychological evaluation and competency assessment at Patton State Hospital, which could take anywhere from several weeks to two years, said Supervising Deputy Public Attorney Yarrow Neubert.
Anderson, however, doesn’t believe Mayfield should be sent to Patton for evaluation.
“We don’t think there’s enough information right now to determine he be immediately sent to Patton. That’s why we’re seeking a second determination,” Anderson said.
Conviction vacated
In a June 26 ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Fernando M. Olguin in Los Angeles said Mayfield’s 1988 conviction and death sentence should be vacated because the prosecutor discriminated against prospective Black jurors by engaging in inappropriate lines of questioning and dismissing some “in a purposefully discriminatory manner.”
Prosecutor Louis Glazier asked Black prospective jurors about their ability to serve given the defendant’s race, revealing “an assumption or belief that a Black juror would favor a Black defendant.”
During jury selection, Glazier questioned Black prospective jurors approximately 22-30% longer than non-Black prospective jurors, and questioned Black prospective jurors about race more than White prospective jurors. “He questioned 50 percent of Black prospective jurors about race, compared to 7.7 percent of non-Black prospective jurors,” Olguin said in his judicial order.
And while prosecutors pointed out that two Blacks served on the jury, Olguin maintained that “accepting a jury that includes members of the challenged group does not refute the inference that when the prosecutor did make peremptory challenges, he did so in a purposefully discriminatory manner.
“Indeed, the court is persuaded that ‘the record (is) so strong on this point that it cannot admit any other conclusion,” Olguin said.
Mayfield declared incompetent
Court-appointed psychologist Marjorie Graham-Howard evaluated Mayfield to determine his competency to stand trial, concluding in a report dated Sept. 23 that he was incompetent. Mayfield, according to Graham-Howard, could not list the criminal charges against him, nor could he describe what happened at the time of his arrest, why he was in jail, why he was potentially facing a new trial, and what sentencing he may face if convicted again.
An Aug. 25 transfer order from Corcoran State Prison, where Mayfield was housed due to his medical condition before his move to the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga to await a new trial, classified him as “totally disabled.” A clinician at the jail evaluated Mayfield on Aug. 28 and found he was “unable to identify location, time or situation,” was disorganized in thoughts and speech, and had a tendency to frequently mumble and laugh to himself while pointing to objects in the room, according Graham-Howard’s report.
While other doctors described Mayfield as being able to communicate, albeit slowly and with effort, Graham-Howard noted in her report that Mayfield could not answer simple questions about his background and history during her evaluation. “Importantly, he could not provide answers to questions about courtroom functioning, nor could he discuss legal plans or demonstrate evidence of sound legal decision-making,” she said.
Deputy Public Defender Daniel Messner, one of Mayfield’s attorneys, said in a recent interview, “This is as clear-cut a case of incompetency as you can get.”
Graham-Howard, who is not a neuropsychologist, recommended that Mayfield undergo a full examination by a forensic neuropsychologist “prior to a determination of permanent incompetence being found.”
Incompetency disputed
Prosecutors dispute Graham-Howard’s conclusion that Mayfield is incompetent to stand trial, pointing to some of the observations in her own report that run counter to that conclusion.
Prison medical records from the past five years, for example, indicate Mayfield required minimal nursing care, was able to communicate, and that “it takes him awhile to communicate but he is able to say what he needs,” Graham-Howard noted.
Additionally, Mayfield’s primary care physician at San Quentin, in a 2013 letter, said Mayfield had “intact cognitive functioning.” And during an interview/evaluation at the West Valley Detention Center last month, Graham-Howard noted Mayfield was “cooperative” and appeared “capable of manifesting appropriate courtroom behavior.” She also referenced findings from prison doctors who said that while Mayfield’s verbal communication skills were severely limited, he was able to communicate and express his thoughts in writing.
On Sept. 9, jail staff reported Mayfield was “oriented” and having “clear and coherent thoughts.”
Mayfield’s arrest
Mayfield fatally shot Wolfley in the face with the officer’s department-issued firearm outside a Shell gas station at Eucalyptus Avenue and Foothill Boulevard. He shot at responding officers and ran to a nearby house, smashed a window, entered and shot the male occupant in the leg, holding him hostage for five hours during a standoff with police before surrendering.
Mayfield claimed he feared for his life — that Wolfley unlawfully detained him, held him at gunpoint, used racial epithets and threatened to kill him. He told authorities he did not mean to kill Wolfley, and that the gun accidentally discharged, twice, during the struggle.
Mayfield claimed the only reason Wolfley detained him was because a man under the influence of drugs told the officer that Mayfield was “trying to kill him” and that Mayfield had a “pistol.” Police, however, did not recover another gun from Mayfield.
In his June 26 ruling, Olguin referenced a California Supreme Court decision from 1997 that concluded that Wolfley’s actions were lawful, and that he was justified in detaining Mayfield for “purposes of investigation.”
Freedom or imprisonment
Neubert said that after more than 34 years in custody, Mayfield has “paid any conceivable debt to society.”
“He sits before us as a physically and mentally incapacitated man. In fact, he is simply not the same man he was in 1986. Not after more than three decades on death row. Not after the devastating stroke that put him in a wheelchair and left him unable to effectively communicate,” she said. “Dennis should be released. He should be allowed to live out what he has left of his diminished life at home. With his family.”
Others, however, believe the severity of Mayfield’s crimes warrant him serving the rest of his life in prison.
“The murder of our colleague, Sgt. Gary Wolfley, continues to affect our department to this very day,” Rialto Police Chief Mark Kling said in a statement. “It is our position that Dennis Mayfield should continue to stay in prison, and should not be afforded any leniency or change in sentencing. Sgt. Wolfley was not afforded any courtesies by Mayfield when he killed Sgt. Wolfley. Further, Mayfield did not show any mercy or leniency to the other police officers he shot at, or the resident he shot that fateful day in 1986.
“Therefore, Mayfield should remain in prison for the rest of his life as the trial judge and California Supreme Court ordered.”
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