CLARK COUNTY, Wash. — The Clark County courtroom was silent Thursday as Dawnese Sahota took the stand to share her story for the first time. Dawnese is the wife of Donald Sahota, a Vancouver police officer who was mistakenly shot and killed by a Clark County deputy in January 2022 — but that deputy wasn’t charged.
The 22-year-old Julio Segura, the defendant in the current murder trial, was charged for his actions leading up to the deadly shooting of Sahota. According to police, Segura allegedly robbed a gas station and then led deputies on a high-speed chase in a stolen car, eventually ditching it; drone footage showed him running into the woods near Sahota's Battle Ground neighborhood.
"We were having a candlelight dinner, a romantic dinner," recalled Dawnese during the fourth day of the trial.
The couple was enjoying their dinner that night when they heard someone repeatedly ringing the doorbell. Dawnese said she called 911 while her husband went outside and talked to Segura; two men are seen standing in the driveway in drone footage.
“He was very aggressive about needing to come in the house, and I remember hearing Don say, ‘You can't come in, but I can help you,’” she said.
The 911 operator told Dawnese that officers were looking for someone in connection with an armed robbery. She then told her husband, and the couple felt Segura fit the description of the man police were looking for.
“I remember my husband saying that he was an officer and attempting to detain him,” Dawnese said.
Then, Dawnese said, she saw Segura reaching for something — and Segura started stabbing her husband.
“I thought he was just hitting him,” she recalled, saying that she did not see the knife as she watched from inside the home while on the phone with dispatchers.
As a patrol car pulled into the driveway, “I remember just yelling, ‘Help him!’” she said.
Segura broke off from the fight and rushed toward the front door when the patrol car pulled up. Dawnese tried to shut the door but said she couldn't get it locked. Segura burst inside the house and threw the door into Dawnese, bruising her forehead.
Still outside in the driveway, her husband got up and tried to follow Segura into the house.
“It all happened so fast, but we heard … there were shots, and I wasn't sure where they came from,” she said.
The Clark County deputy that pulled into the Sahota's driveway thought the man still outside the house was Segura, the suspect. He shot the man without realizing he was Sahota, the off-duty officer.
When Dawnese heard the shots, she began to run through the house, and she said she believed Segura was chasing her.
“I went out to the door that goes out to the garage, and I thought, ‘I’m going to die right here because I'm not going to be able to get this door open,’” Dawnese said.
Once she got outside the garage, deputies told her to put her hands in the air. Dawnese immediately looked for her husband.
“I thought he would be there. I obviously knew he was hurt, but I didn't know what had happened at that point,” she said.
According to police, Segura subsequently exited the house and was taken into custody.
Segura’s defense attorney cross-examined Dawnese for about 20 minutes, questioning parts of her testimony; Segura argued that he didn’t know Sahota was a police officer and that he was acting in self-defense.
The trial is expected to last three weeks.