Fremont man pleads to machine gun assault on Vallejo police officer

A 45-year-old Fremont man last week pleaded no contest to assault with a machine gun on a Vallejo police officer and other crimes stemming from a 2018 high-speed chase from Vallejo into Oakland, and will face more than 25 years in state prison when sentenced in the coming weeks.

Facing an April 29 jury trial, Dominic James Milano, appearing on Friday  Department 2 of Solano County Superior Court, entered a no-contest plea on the assault charge and also on two other felonies: Being a felon or addict in possession of a firearm and evading a police officer.

Milano also admitted to a prior strike and to using a machine gun to fire at the officer. Court records also indicated that his plea was contingent on an agreement that no federal charges would be sought for Milano’s violation of his federal supervised release.

Judge Daniel Healy dismissed nine other charges — most of them in 2020 and scattered others on Friday. They included three counts of attempted murder, one count of being a violent felon in possession of body armor, three counts of illegally possessing any assault weapon, one count of possessing ammunition, and one count of assault with a machine gun on a police officer.

With the no-contest pleas, Milano did not admit guilt but stated, essentially, he would offer no defense. Healy immediately found Milano guilty of the three felonies, and, as part of the plea agreement, told Milano he would serve 25 years, four months in state prison, with credit for time served, more than five years. Healey then ordered Milano to return for a pre-sentencing report and sentencing at 8:30 a.m. April 12 in the Justice Building in Vallejo.

Deputy Public Defender Nick Filloy represented Milano, and Chief Deputy District Attorney Bruce Flynn led the prosecution.

Milano’s plea ends another high-profile Vallejo case that took years to resolve.

As previously reported, after a 2020 preliminary hearing, Flynn decided to drop all but one attempted murder charge, agreeing with Filloy there was only sufficient evidence to charge Milano with the attempted murder of Officer Matt Komoda and not two other officers involved in the Nov. 1, 2018, chase into Oakland, where Milano was arrested.

In a brief interview after the two-day proceedings, Filloy said the DA did not have enough evidence to charge Milano with the two other serious felonies, because a bullet — or a bullet fragment — was found in a vehicle shared by the two responding officers. The bullet may have been a ricochet, not a round fired directly at them.

During the initial preliminary hearing, witnesses to the shooting in the area of International Boulevard and 22nd Avenue, where Milano allegedly began firing at officers after crashing his vehicle, described what they saw and heard.

One of them said he was unable to identify the driver in a “black car,” and, under cross-examination by Filloy, said he saw the driver of the vehicle through the passenger side of the vehicle. The witness also said he didn’t see the driver of the black vehicle fire a weapon.

Flynn called to the witness stand Brandon Graham of Vallejo, who testified that he had called 911 on Nov. 1 after seeing Milano earlier in the day.

A day or two before the gun battle, Graham said he had agreed to help Milano move and, at one point, Milano had shown him several weapons in his possession.

He told Flynn that Milano had called him during the police pursuit and, at some point, told Graham he was not going to be captured by the police.

The Solano County DA’s Office filed a complaint in the case on Nov. 5, 2018.

Court records show that around 1 p.m. Nov. 1, Milano was reportedly armed and sitting in a vehicle in the Glen Cove neighborhood in Vallejo. A witness alerted officers, whose arrival on scene prompted Milano to flee. He then sped west on Interstate 80, reaching speeds of up to 120 mph as he headed toward Alameda County.

Milano allegedly fired at pursuing Vallejo police officers during the chase and, arriving in Oakland, where he crashed his vehicle, subsequently again fired upon the officers. They returned the gunfire. No officers were injured or wounded.

At the time of the shooting, Milano reportedly was wearing body armor and in possession of a considerable cache of firearms. A search of his vehicle revealed an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, an AK-47 assault rifle, an Uzi submachine gun and two Glock semi-automatic handguns.

Solano County sheriff’s deputies arrested Milano on Nov. 12 at Alameda County Jail and booked him into Solano County Jail the same day. He remains in the Stanton Correctional Facility in Fairfield on $2.5 million bail.