Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Rupa S. Goswami found sufficient evidence to allow the case against Aaron Miguel Conell, now 26, to proceed to trial following a daylong hearing in a Pasadena courtroom.
The Pasadena resident is charged with murder for the Nov. 18, 2023, killing of Mickey Cooper, 64, at Washington Park, at 700 E. Washington Blvd.
Pasadena Police Department Detective Jorge “George” Salazar testified that the victim’s body was found lying on the ground in between two benches in a gazebo where he had been sleeping at the park after police were notified through a gunshot detection alert system about two shots fired in the area at about 4:10 a.m. that day.
“It almost looked like he was asleep,” the detective testified, noting that authorities subsequently determined that he had been shot just above his left ear and in his right hand.
The victim’s belongings, including a trash bag of recyclable items, were found nearby, along with two cartridge cases, according to the detective.
Conell is also charged with three counts of attempted murder involving an Oct. 29, 2023, shooting and two shootings on Nov. 16, 2023, along with one count of assault with a firearm involving a man who had stopped at a gas station on Nov. 5, 2023.
Following his arrest late Nov. 18, 2023, Conell asked an undercover jailhouse operative if his life would be “pretty much done” if law enforcement linked his DNA to bullet casings found by police, including two that detectives found inside a car that he had allegedly been driving, according to the detective.
Conell told the operative that detectives would perform ballistics testing and that “we are going to link everything together,” the detective told the judge.
The detective testified that Conell was subsequently interviewed by police and “didn’t tell me much,” but that he admitted being the man seen on police bodycam footage adjacent to Washington Park before officers responding to the gunshot detection alert system determined that a man had been shot in the neck in a nearby staircase at about 2:18 a.m. Oct, 29, 2023 — just under three weeks before Cooper’s killing.
Ballistics testing performed on cartridge casings recovered from the scene of Cooper’s killing and one of the other shootings along with two casings recovered from the car that Conell had allegedly been driving concluded that they were all linked to a 9 mm firearm found in the vehicle’s trunk, according to the detective.
Police said the series of shootings appeared to be random attacks.
Cooper’s brother, Michael, was a defensive stalwart during the Lakers’ “Showtime ” championship era in the 1980s. After his playing career ended, he had various coaching positions, including as coach of the Los Angeles Sparks, guiding them to two WNBA titles. He is now the men’s basketball coach at Cal State Los Angeles.
“The reason that my brother was there (is) because it was a safe haven for him, a place that he felt that he could be comfortable and safe,” Michael Cooper told reporters during a news conference shortly after his brother was killed. “And it had been, up until that tragic night this has happened.”
Cooper said he and his brother played regularly at the park when they were growing up.
He thanked Pasadena police for their work on the case, reiterating that his brother had struggled with drug addiction “that he just couldn’t shake.”
“I like to feel he is in a better place,” Cooper said.
Conell — who is due back in court for arraignment May 20 — could face a potential life prison term if convicted as charged.
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