A cab driver who says he encountered the defendant testifies on Day Three of the murder trial – 6/11

When Gary Shawkey stood in line at a taxi stand in early 2008 outside of the Hyatt Regency in Long Beach not wearing any shoes, he was likely unaware that his face was plastered on TV news broadcasts.

The cab he hopped into was driven by Kennath Sacman, who testified before an Orange County jury Thursday. It was the third day in a trial to determine whether Shawkey murdered an elderly Phoenix man whose body he is alleged to have dumped into the ocean after sailing out of Dana Point Harbor.

Sacman said he drove Shawkey to a Payless, then later called a police tip line after recognizing the barefoot man on the news broadcasts. At the time, Shawkey was wanted only in connection with the disappearance of Robert Vendrick.

The taxi driver testified to details of Shawkey’s actions upon returning from his boat trip off Dana Point.

He said that after shopping for shoes, Shawkey asked to be taken to a bank, T-Mobile, the Department of Motor Vehicles and then back to Wells Fargo.

After leaving the bank the second time and driving away, Sacman said, he heard a woman yelling after them. He drove back and saw the woman hand Shawkey a thick wad of cash he had dropped before getting back into Sacman’s taxi.

Shawkey asked Sacman to drop him off at Long Beach Harbor and asked him if he wanted to buy his boat, Sacman testified.

Three days before Sacman met Shawkey, police issued a missing persons report for Robert Vendrick.

Orange County Sheriff’s Deputy Donald Voght also testified, saying he found Vendrick’s rented PT Cruiser parked outside of the Dolphin Safari, a dolphin and whale watching tour business at the Dana Point Harbor. Vendrick, however, was nowhere to be found, Voght said.

Voght testified that on Feb. 19, 2008, he entered the PT Cruiser and took three items as evidence. A note in the center console of the car enumerated six items: a cable, blanket, water, pillow, generator and heater. The other evidence included a Wells Fargo business card with the name Monique written on the back and a receipt showing a money transfer of $60,000 from Gary Shawkey to his wife, Stephanie.

Police called Stephanie Shawkey, who then contacted her husband to tell him that the police were looking for him.

The police got Stephanie Shawkey’s phone number from the cell phone of David Lee Wallace, a man Shawkey met at Buster’s Beach House, a Long Beach bar. Shawkey had asked to borrow Wallace’s phone after Shawkey told him he lost his own phone checking lobster pots in Catalina, he testified in court.

Police called Wallace after Charlene Muse, a bartender at Buster’s Beach House, called a tip line.

Muse also recognized Shawkey’s face on TV news reports, which called him a person of interest in the missing person case, she testified.

Shawkey called police from a pay phone at 100 Aquarian Way in Long Beach to ask why the police were looking for him.

He spoke with Lt. Hal Brotheim, and the call was recorded and played in court.

Shawkey says on the tape he knew where Vendrick had gone—to Chile, he said. In the recording, Brotheim tells Shawkey to stay where he is so that a Long Beach police officer can pick him up, take him in for questioning and put the matter to bed.  

Shawkey agreed and waited for police to arrive.

Deputy Voght traveled with Shawkey to Catalina to search for an anchor that Shawkey had purchased for his boat, the Odyssey. After spending more than seven hours with Shawkey, they found the missing anchor in Twin Harbor.

The security video from the Dolphin Safari of Vendrick getting onto the Odyssey as he and Shawkey motor out of Dana Point Harbor is the last time Vendrick was seen alive.

The trial continues tomorrow at 9:15 a.m. in Santa Ana Central Justice Center.