Taking stand in his own defense

Man testifies drugs, fear made him shoot, kill his girlfriend in Flag City

The day he fatally shot his girlfriend at a Flag City gas station on Feb. 20, 2007, David Brian Bernel was high on drugs and feared for his life, he testified Friday in his own defense against a murder charge.

"I was too frantic, too scared. My mind was just going," he told a San Joaquin County jury about shooting Jennifer Bushnell, then fleeing and ditching his car less than a mile away.

Leaning forward in his seat and turning to face the jury, Bernel described his drug use dating back to age 14, his drug sales that brought in $40,000 a week and the events leading up to that fatal day.

After shooting Bushnell, 29, Bernel ditched his Honda west of Interstate 5, stumbled across Highway 12, lost his gun in the process and kept going.

He knew he'd just shot his girlfriend multiple times, but he also believed angry drug dealers were after him. So, he testified, he hid in some trees nearby and watched police search the gas station where he shot Bushnell. While hiding, he snorted methamphetamine to "be more alert and on my toes," he said.

Then he went to the nearby Flying J gas station's bathroom, cleaned some mud off himself and sat in a stall for a couple hours.

And while law enforcement officers processed the scene, Bernel went to a McDonald's in sight of the gas station. He ordered some food and sat outside near a pay phone, which he used to try to call his cousin.

When that failed, he took a cab to a Lodi Burger King near Highway 99, met some "tweakers" at a nearby liquor store, and offered them drugs and money to drive him to Fresno.

In Fresno, a friend — whose real name and address Bernel said he doesn't know — left him a year-old sport utility vehicle and a gun. Bernel spent three days wandering south to Los Angeles, making countless turns to throw off the drug dealers he thought were still following him. Then he went to Las Vegas, where he gambled away nearly all of the $17,000 he'd had on him at the time of the shooting.

He made it to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where investigators caught up and arrested him.

A year-and-a-half later, Bernel, now 29, is on trial. If 12 jurors don't believe that he acted in self-defense or was so high on drugs that he didn't know what was happening, Bernel could spend the rest of his life in prison. Under questioning from his attorney, Andrew Quinn, Bernel said he and Bushnell had rocky times.

"I loved Jennifer. We might have had a dysfunctional relationship — that's the way it was — but we loved each other very much," Bernel said.

When Quinn asked how he could commit such a crime, Bernel replied, "I don't know."

Three days before the shooting, the two were at Bernel's mother's home in King County when Bushnell got upset and said she'd had enough of Bernel. He grabbed a loaded shotgun.

He admitted threatening to blow Bushnell's head off with a shotgun, then dragging her out of the house to the garage.

"I don't know why I did the things I did. I was beside myself. I was insane, crazy," Bernel said, adding that his brain wasn't working properly because he was on drugs.

When questioned by Deputy District Attorney Sherri Adams, he also admitted to hitting Bushnell with the butt of a shotgun, then said: "If I can also add, the butt of the shotgun is rubber. It's about that thick (Bernal said holding his fingers two inches apart) and it's extremely soft. Just so you know."

Bernel's mother called law enforcement, and a SWAT team soon arrived. They spent hours there, finally entering and learning that nobody was inside. Bushnell and Bernel had left before the SWAT team's arrival, and she later told police she was fine.

They spent the next few days driving to Yosemite, stopping at a couple stores in Modesto, and ultimately headed north toward Bushnell's home in Humbolt County. Bernel said he thought he was being followed by drug dealers, but he finally stopped to get gas in Flag City.

He went inside to pay for gas, then said he thought Bushnell was waving toward someone, as if to turn him over to the drug dealers. He ran outside and, as a silent surveillance camera rolled, shot her several times.

Then Bernel, who said that as a child he "wanted to be in law enforcement more than anything else," was on the run.

His trial continues next week in Judge Bernard Garber's courtroom.

Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com.