BANNING: ‘He almost killed me,‘ 2014 victim says of shooting spree suspect

A man who spent three days in a San Diego-area ICU with a brain bleed after he was beaten unconscious by James Paul Diaz Jr. said he warned prosecutors in 2014 that Diaz would eventually kill someone.

Diaz Jr. now stands accused of murder and attempted murder in a shooting rampage that took place through the streets of Banning on Saturday, Sept. 26, killing two people and injuring three.

Diaz Jr., 34, of Hemet, appeared in court briefly Thursday, but he did not enter a plea. His arraignment was postponed for the second day in a row, this time until the end of the month at the request of his newly appointed public defender.

He was charged Wednesday with 10 crimes, including two counts of murder in the shooting deaths of Paul “Joey” Lesh, 66, and Benjamin Franklin “Benny” Johnson, 34, both of Banning. He is eligible for the death penalty, but the district attorney has not decided whether to pursue it.

Michael Sokoloff, a firefighter from San Diego County, said Diaz Jr. assaulted him Feb. 19, 2014, at a firefighters convention party at the San Diego Firehouse Museum.

Diaz Jr. was charged with felony battery with serious bodily injury, according to San Diego County Superior Court documents. In September 2014, Diaz pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of misdemeanor battery.

“I told the DA in San Diego when they let him off, that this guy was going to (expletive) kill someone,” Sokoloff said by phone Thursday. “That guy is crazy, man.”

Diaz Jr. was sentenced to 20 days in a public-service work program, ordered to complete an anger-management program and pay a $900 fine, and placed on probation for three years, according to court records.

In December, he was granted a motion to have his probation terminated early and his record expunged.

‘HE ALMOST KILLED ME’

Sokoloff said he still can’t believe the charge was pleaded down, given the severity of his injuries, and was shocked when informed that Diaz Jr. had his record expunged.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said.

Messages left with two spokespeople with the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office late Thursday afternoon were not returned.

Sokoloff said Diaz Jr. knocked him unconscious from behind, then continued to pummel him while he was knocked out. He suffered minor bleeding on the brain, had his lip split to his nose and had stitches on the back of his head. He was in the ICU for three days, he said.

“He almost killed me,” the 47-year-old Sokoloff said.

Sokoloff said he called the Banning Police Department after Saturday’s shooting and left a voice message with a detective sharing details about his own assault. He said police have yet to call him – but “I understand they’re busy,” he said.

Diaz Jr. was a seasonal firefighter with Cal Fire at the time of the San Diego assault.

He was hired by the state agency in June 2008 and terminated “with cause” in April 2015, but resigned a few days before the termination took effect, Cal Fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said. He could not comment on the reasons for the termination notice.

The assault on Sokoloff was not Diaz Jr.’s first conviction for a violent crime. When he was 17, in October 1998, he was found in Riverside County Juvenile Court to have shot at an occupied dwelling.

He was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol in March and remains on probation after pleading guilty in August.

A KINDER SIDE OF SUSPECT

Before Diaz Jr. arrived in a Banning courthouse Thursday morning, a family friend painted a much more positive picture of the shooting suspect.

Monica Diaz, no blood relation to Diaz Jr., said she watched him grow up in Cabazon and described him as “such a nice person, always had a big smile on his face.”

“The kind of person he was he would always help out,” she said. “He was humble.”

She said she hadn’t spoken with Diaz Jr. in some years, but has spoken with people in Cabazon who know him and who went to school with him. She said they are all in shock.

Diaz Jr. appeared in court handcuffed and wearing a county-issued red jumpsuit, which indicates he is being kept separated from other inmates.

He made brief eye contact with members of the audience before quietly taking his seat with no expression on his face. He bounced his right leg nonstop through the hearing that lasted a little more than five minutes.

Diaz Jr. spoke only twice, telling the judge no, he had not hired an attorney, at which point a public defender was assigned, and yes, he waived his right to be arraigned Thursday when the public defender requested the hearing be postponed.

Judge W. Charles Morgan rescheduled it for Oct. 30.

He also denied media requests to photograph Diaz Jr.

It wasn’t clear Thursday morning whether family members of any of the victims were present in the courtroom, but none of Diaz Jr.’s family was present, Monica Diaz said.

As she exited the courtroom weeping, she said, “I can’t believe they didn’t come.”

Longtime friends with the suspect’s mother, she said she talked to her Wednesday. Monica Diaz added the mother works at the Banning courthouse.

She added that she believes the family is in seclusion.

Diaz Jr.’s first scheduled arraignment was Wednesday at the Southwest Justice Center in French Valley. His family did go there, Monica Diaz said.

Wednesday’s hearing was postponed because the Sheriff’s Department did not medically clear Diaz Jr. to be transported from jail to the courthouse.

Sheriff’s officials said they could not discuss his medical condition.

Diaz Jr. remains in custody with no bail.

The murder charges against Diaz Jr. come with special-circumstances allegations of committing multiple murders and shooting from a vehicle, which make him eligible for the death penalty if Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin decides to seek it.

Diaz Jr. also was charged with two counts of attempted murder, three counts of assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of child endangerment and one count of misdemeanor vandalism.

This story first appeared in The Press-Enterprise on Oct. 1, 2015.