MARTINEZ — It was a late night meeting, ostensibly to sort out an escalating problem over burglary allegations and the victims taking to social media to find the perps.
But it ended in gunfire, with 41-year-old Roberto Gonzalez-Lamas dead and his 59-year-old friend injured. Now the two men on the other side of a conflict sit in jail, waiting for a jury to decide whether they’ll end up in prison or walk free.
The defendants, Lonnie Decker, 54, and Steven Kelly, 62, are best friends, according to their lawyers. They showed up at different times to a preplanned meeting on Bryan Avenue in Antioch, on the night of Jan. 23, 2024.
It all started because the victims were understandably irate over an earlier burglary of a storage unit, which cost Gonzalez-Lamas and a relative tens of thousands of dollars. They’d posted pictures on social media of the burglars and suspected Kelly and one of his relatives were responsible, authorities said. The feud led to a confrontation days earlier on Lawton Avenue in Antioch, leading to the Jan. 23, 2024 homicide.
At 6′ 3″ and 300 pounds — according to the jail roster — Decker towers over everyone else in the courtroom. Prosecutors claim he was brought there that night not because he’s Kelly’s best friend, but to act as Kelly’s “muscle” in a showdown.
But they weren’t the only ones armed that night. Gonzalez-Lamas brought a large, heavy wrench and a pistol, and one of his friends may have had a small Berretta handgun hidden in his sweater, though the gun was later found inside the house next to a half-pound of methamphetamine. Defense and prosecuting attorneys debated whether a third man brought a large loaded shotgun to the confrontation or if he ran and grabbed the firearm as Decker opened fire.
In a lengthy closing argument, Decker’s lawyer, Garth McCardle, told jurors that Decker was simply reacting to Gonzalez-Lamas’ “violence,” and called what happen an “average American tragedy” that can occur when everyone brings a gun to an argument.
“If two men scare each other and pull weapons, the fasted one may end up being charged with murder,” McCardle said. He later added, “If Lonnie shoots second, then maybe he dies.”
But the prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Kabu Adodoadji, said Kelly and Decker came there “to provoke, to confront,” and that Decker was a “bully” who lied on the stand during his trial to get off the hook.
“They were armed and ready to shoot people … these two were looking to confront Roberto Gonzalez-Lamas specifically,” Adodoadji said.
Kelly’s lawyer, Nicole Eiland, described it as a four-on-two confrontation between Decker, Kelly, and a group of “vigilantes” who had been warned by Antioch police not to deal with the burglary on their own, but ignored the advice. She accused the victims’ two friends of tampering with the crime scene by moving a phone and the Berretta, and said that Kelly pulled his gun and shot wildly into a car because he panicked after Decker fired.
When Decker walked up to the Bryan Avenue home that night, Kelly was there, arguing with three men, but Gonzalez-Lamas had not yet arrived. Video from a nearby security camera — partially blocked by a spider web — captured the shooting.
It shows Kelly and one of the other parties loudly arguing as Kelly apparently pleads his innocence. Decker pulls Kelly away and the discussion appears to be winding down, but neither Kelly nor one of the other men appear to want to give the last word. Both defense attorneys pointed out, though, that by this point violence had been averted.
Then Gonzalez-Lamas is seen pulling up, leaving his motor running as he heads into the fracas. The video shows him getting in Kelly’s face and yelling to see Kelly’s hands. A few second later, Decker pulls a gun and fires, later testifying that he believed Gonzalez-Lamas was going for his gun.
“Self-defense isn’t triggered by getting shot at, that’s too late,” McCardle said, later adding that the two groups had been yelling at each other for 15 minutes without escalation before Gonzalez-Lamas “brought violence” into the situation.
Adodoadji countered that Gonzalez-Lamas being “loud” isn’t a valid reason to kill someone. He argued that while Decker and Kelly were walking away from the argument, they changed their minds when they saw Gonzalez-Lamas pull up.
“He’s not a vigilante. He just wanted his son’s car back,” Adodoadji said.