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Officer Brian Hansen of the Cal City PD has taken the stand in the second day of trial for Trezell and Jacqueline West. The Wests are charged with murder and other offenses in the deaths of their adopted sons Orrin, 4, and Orson, 3.
On Dec. 21, 2020, the day Orrin and Orson were reported missing, Hansen went to the Wests home. He had a police trainee, Joshua Flores, with him.
Prosecutor Eric Smith is questioning Hansen about what he saw when he first arrived. The officer said he contacted Jacqueline and Trezell West. They told him Trezell was in the backyard gathering firewood while the children were playing.
The couple told him Trezell lost sight of the children, couldn't find them and looked for them then called police, Hansen said. The officer said he canvassed the area looking for the children.
Spotlights and floodlights on his Chevy Tahoe were used as they searched for the children, Hansen said. He found nothing.
He said they didn't initially search the empty lots but did later. They didn't find anything.
Missing persons cases are "a little more sensitive" than other calls, Hansen said. They have to look at people in the area to see if they took the children wandered off, etc.
Hansen testified for juveniles when searching a home they look under beds and piles of clothes to make sure the children aren't hiding. He said they searched the entire West home that evening.
The backyard was searched for children's footprints leading out to the gate or a different direction.
Hansen said he saw one shoeprint in the backyard.
Prosecutor Smith has displayed a photo of the shoeprint the officer found. It was near the cement slab in the backyard where the kids were supposed to be playing, Hansen said.
He compared slip-on sandals near the back door to the print and they were "almost identical." Orrin and Orson would have been wearing Nike shoes, Hansen said.
Hansen testified he saw no other shoeprints in the backyard. The only other prints were animal prints. There was no trial of prints leading to the back gate area.
There were no prints smaller than the one shoeprint he saw, Hansen testified.
Hansen says he has children and is aware of the shoe sizes they wore when they were around 3 or 4.
There were possible dog tracks throughout the whole area, the officer said.
Hansen said he thinks he asked Jacqueline West whose sandal made the print and she said they were hers. There were no other shoeprints.
Smith is about to play video of an interview Hansen conducted with the Wests that evening.
In the recording, Hansen says, "This is not a normal situation. These kids didn't just walk away."
Hansen tells the Wests they reviewed video footage and there is no evidence of the kids walking away from the house via the side lot.
In the recording, Trezell West sticks to his story. The officer tells him he's being defensive and says Trezell is afraid of being caught up in a lie.
"The vanishing part is the weird part," Trezell says of Orrin and Orson going missing. He says he was getting firewood, noticed the boys missing and searched for them.
Trezell West in the recording says he knows how "people do" when it comes to missing black children. The officer says he's taking it to the "racist route."
Surveillance footage has been played in court from the night of Dec. 21, 2020. Officer Hansen testified he saw no footage of Orrin and Orson walking in the street.
Prosecutor Eric Smith is now playing an interview Hansen conducted with Trezell West at the California City Police Department. Trezell is telling him when they adopted Orrin and Orson.
"When was the last time all six kids were together?" Hansen asks. Trezell says it was either 2 or 3 days earlier.
Trezell says he was only in the backyard about 20 minutes gathering wood. He says he went inside to check the fireplace. When he came back out the kids weren't there, he tells Hansen.
Trezell says in the recording the children were on the concrete slab by his home when he went inside. When he came out they were not on the slab.
Trezell says it dawned on him to back outside to see if the gate was open or closed. He says the gate was open.
He and his wife were anxious, Trezell says in the video, and he got in his van looking for Orrin and Orson. He describes the direction he took as he searched.
Hansen tells Trezell search dogs found no trace of the children anywhere in the immediate area except for the house. "What does that mean though?" Trezell asks. "Meaning maybe they left in a car," Hansen says.
Trezell asks if he's telling him his children were kidnapped, and the officer asks if there has ever been an issue with the boys' biological parents. Trezell says it's always an issue, they know where they live.
In the video, an officer tells Trezell the footage they've reviewed doesn't show any cars moving along his street at the time he says the children went missing.
Asked for his theory on how the children left the house, Trezell says he assumes they left through the side gate.
"The kids were never there," an officer says. Search dogs indicate they weren't outside the house, an officer says in the video.
The only thing caught on camera was a man walking a dog more than an hour before the boys were reporting missing, an officer tells Trezell. The footage showed him walk along the street and leave.
"Let's do what we have to do," Trezell says. An officer tells him about the resources they have showing up.
Trezell leaves the interview room. Prosecutor Eric Smith stopped the video.
Court is in recess for 15 minutes.
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it's awful.
