Hearing begins for suspected Suisun City killer

Ryan Moore, center, appears in Solano County Superior Court, Friday, Oct. 26, 2012, charged with the killing of Bettina Brown in Suisun City on night of Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012. (Brad Zweerink/Daily Republic)

FAIRFIELD — The Suisun City man who faces a murder charge in the shooting death of a friend was in court Friday for the start of a probable cause hearing.

Ryan J. Moore, 33, was with two friends on the night of Oct. 23, 2012, at a Stellar Way home when he allegedly shot and killed 41-year-old Bettina Brown. The other friend who fled the house after the shooting, Timothy W. Wallace Jr., was the only witness on the first day of the two-day hearing.

Wallace, 21, testified that he showed up at the house to join Moore in playing the NCAA ’09 video game. He sat on one recliner chair, Moore sat on another recliner and Brown was eating cheese and crackers on a couch next to Moore.

Moore had him look at three text messages he had just received from an ex-girlfriend announcing that she was finally done with him. Wallace said the messages made Moore sad.

As the game console was warming up, Moore talked for a short time on the phone with his sister. After Moore hung up the phone, he told Wallace that his family hated him. Moore looked sad and mad, Wallace testified.

Moore then wrapped his hand around a bottle of tequila and started guzzling it like water. Then he picked up a double-edged butterfly knife and started twirling it in the air.

“Stop playing with the knife before it flies out of your hand and cuts one of us,” Wallace said he told Moore.

Brown told Wallace, “He’s not going to cut me.”

Moore dropped the knife and got up to go toward the bathroom, but stopped and picked up a rifle that leaning against a wall behind a pile of dirty clothes, in the corner of the living room, Wallace testified.

“Put the gun down,” Wallace said he told Moore.

“Well I’m going to shoot her,” was Moore’s reply.

He then shot her, Wallace testified.

Brown leapt to her feet.

“This mother (expletive) shot me,” Brown shouted before she toppled to the floor.

Wallace said he stood up, and saw blood shooting out of Brown’s mouth as he ran out of the house, convinced he was about to be shot.

Wallace called police from his uncle’s nearby home.

Judge Wendy Getty ordered Moore back to court Monday morning for the rest of the probable cause hearing.

Reach Jess Sullivan at 427-6919 or jsullivan@dailyrepublic.net. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jsullivandr.

Jess Sullivan

Jess has covered the criminal justice system in Solano County for several years. He was an embedded reporter in Iraq in 2003.

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