SAN JOSE — A jury has found a man guilty of voluntary manslaughter for killing an elderly stranger two years ago in a blindside assault spurred by the victim shining a flashlight at him during a chance encounter on a quiet South San Jose street.
There was no dispute that 35-year-old Amiel Joey Mirador killed 81-year-old Allen Dournaee with a brief flurry of punches from behind — two of them after Dournaee was already unconscious after falling face-down onto a sidewalk.
But a two-week trial that ended Friday with the verdict revolved around whether Mirador was expressly looking to kill Dournaee in a fit of anger over the flashlight, with the prosecution pointing to the viciousness of the attack and the vulnerability of the octogenarian victim as grounds for a second-degree murder conviction.
Mirador’s defense — including his own trial testimony — asserted that the flashlight shining was a more serious provocation than how it might have sounded, and that his punches were never meant to kill. Combined with the injuries Dournaee suffered from falling to the ground, they argued the death was a freak accident that warranted an involuntary manslaughter finding.
The verdict handed down Friday afternoon after three days of deliberation represented a middle ground of sorts: The voluntary manslaughter finding indicates that the jury saw the attack as an act clouded by emotional distress, or a “heat of passion” mental state.
“He committed a serious offense, but it wasn’t murder, and the jury saw that,” Supervising Deputy Public Defender Miguel Rodriguez said Friday. “It was a just verdict.”
Monica Scott, Dournaee’s daughter, was distraught Friday alongside her family, who attended each day of the trial.
“It’s a travesty. The entire system victimizes victims over and over again,” Scott said. “He beat an 81-year-old man on the street, and he deserves a murder charge. Anyone who saw the video would agree.”
Besides finding the defendant guilty of the manslaughter charge — and declaring him not guilty of murder in the process — jurors also found Mirador not guilty of an elder abuse charge. That suggests they agreed with a defense argument that the nighttime hour, a hat and COVID mask worn by Dournaee, and the flashlight shining in Mirador’s eyes meant he did not know he was assaulting an elderly person until after the fact.
Mirador testified at trial, through a Tagalog interpreter, that he confronted Dournaee over the flashlight shining, which he said made him scared for his safety. He also admitted in court to lying to witnesses, emergency personnel and police about his role in Dournaee’s injuries, which he said came from being overwhelmed by fear in the immediate aftermath.
The attack occurred March 27, 2022 near Avenida Grande and Via Romera, in a neighborhood nestled between Bernal Road and Santa Teresa Boulevard. Dournaee was out on a night walk around 8 p.m. and had never met the defendant before he was punched from behind while retreating from Mirador, as was shown in surveillance video presented at trial.
According to generally agreed-upon facts presented at trial, about an hour before the attack, Mirador had gotten into a fight with his older brother at a home, in the same neighborhood, after arriving drunk following a shift as a line cook. The brother punched Mirador, prompting a police call that ended with no arrests.
Another older brother also ended up fighting with Mirador while driving the defendant away from the home; the scuffle ended with Mirador punching and breaking the windshield and getting out of the vehicle, heading to an eventual path toward Dournaee.
Mirador was on the opposite side of the street when Dournaee shined his flashlight at Mirador. Home-security footage from a nearby residence shows Dournaee turn and walk away from Mirador, who crossed the street to close the distance and punched Dournaee in the back of the head, knocking him to the ground.
Mirador punched a prone Dournaee in the head again, then, a few seconds later, after looking around, wound up and punched him a third time.
Dournaee never regained consciousness, and he died 12 days later from severe head injuries. Mirador called 911 and later claimed that he found Dournaee on the ground after tripping on him, a story that the video footage quickly debunked.
Mirador’s potential sentence for the conviction is unclear, because he still faces a separate court trial scheduled for Jan. 6 to address his prior criminal convictions. In the meantime, he will remain in the Santa Clara County jail where he is being held without bail.
