Survivor testifies about Northern Nevada trespass shooting

By Scott Sonner, Associated Press

Wednesday, May 27, 2015 | 1:31 p.m.

RENO — A female trespasser who survived a shooting in a vacant Nevada duplex testified Wednesday that the property owner entered the unit and opened fire without provocation, wounding her three times and killing a man on the floor next to her.

Janai Wilson testified in Washoe District Court in Reno as prosecutors prepared to rest their case against Wayne Burgarello on charges of murder and attempted murder.

Wilson broke into tears as she recalled hearing at least six gunshots in the rundown rental unit in Sparks while she huddled beneath a comforter, fearing the shooter would kill her, too.

"It seemed like just one after another — bang, bang, bang, bang," Wilson said. "There was a slight break, nothing very long, but a slight pause in between."

Burgarello, 74, has said he fired in self-defense when he killed 34-year-old Cody Devine and seriously wounded Wilson on Feb. 13, 2014.

Neither trespasser had a gun, but Burgarello told police that Devine's arm "came up like a gun." His defense attorney said Burgarello may have mistaken a black flashlight found at the scene for a firearm.

Wilson, 30, said she met Devine the night before at a casino. She said he offered to give her a ride to pick up a discarded table to take to the abandoned duplex where she had lived off and on for three years and was trying to establish squatter's rights by listing the address on her driver's license.

Wilson said she injected methamphetamine at the duplex, but Devine didn't because he couldn't find a vein. She said she was later awakened by what sounded like someone crashing through the front door, followed by an angry voice saying, "What are you doing in my house?"

Wilson said Devine replied, "We were just sleeping."

Wilson said she looked up and saw Burgarello in the bedroom doorway with a gun.

"I realized it was my responsibility to talk to the guy, so I looked up to respond to him," Wilson said. "I saw him with a gun, and shoot Cody. He raised it and shot. I screamed."

Devine was shot five times, once fatally through the skull. Wilson said the second shot hit her in the leg. She also was shot in the arm and stomach.

"I didn't move at all. I was scared," she testified.

She soon heard another man who sounded like he was outside the duplex ask, "What's going on in there?" She said the first voice answered, "They're in my house and I shot them."

Lying motionless, Wilson said she heard the heavy breathing of the first man as he returned to the bedroom and she began to worry "that my breathing was just as heavy as his and he'd know I was still alive — and that he wouldn't want me alive."

She also testified that she had been told the duplex owner had moved to San Francisco and didn't care about the property. She said she knew she was trespassing but Devine did not.

"It was not his fault we were there," she said, wiping away tears. "I brought Cody there and he didn't have anything to do with that."