"shot caller" of the Salinas Norteño gangs.

 gang leader tearfully told jurors Tuesday he thought he was about to be killed by unknown assailants when he accelerated in reverse out of a Salinas apartment complex and ran over a sheriff's deputy.
Raymond Campos, 30, wept as he testified that he shed his gang lifestyle years ago and has devoted himself to his wife and children since he was released from prison in 2008. His gang tattoos, he said, are remnants of his teen years.Sheriff's officials have described him as the "shot caller" of the Salinas Norteño gangs.
Campos is charged with attempted murder and assault on peace officers in connection with the April 10, 2009, incident. He and co-defendant Michael Diaz are charged with possession of about 5 ounces of methamphetamine for sale. Both have denied the charges.
In equally tearful testimony earlier in the three-week trial, deputy Jesse Piñon and Salinas police officer Jeffrey Alford said they watched Campos in the late evening hours make "hand-to-hand" exchanges with the drivers of two vehicles in the parking lot of apartments at 57 Natividad Road.
As they got out of their unmarked car to make an arrest, wearing street clothes and task force vests, Campos got into his car and began to back out. Piñon said Alford tapped on the car and opened the door, telling Campos to stop, but the suspect "punched it." Piñon was knocked to the ground by the open door, dragged and then run over, breaking his collarbone.lford testified that he chased the car out into the street and fired five shots through its windows before Campos fled. His car was found wrecked a short time later, but the suspect was gone. Campos was arrested three weeks later.Meanwhile, police found two envelopes and a safe containing methamphetamine on the ground in front of and behind the apartment. A key on Campos' ring fit the safe.On Tuesday, Campos said the entire incident was an accident and a mistake. He said he had stopped by the apartment of his longtime friend, Adriana Lerma, to pick up pajamas for her and Diaz's children, who were going to spend the night with his children. Lerma and Diaz were arguing, so he waited outside.
He said a white Bronco came in and parked in Lerma's parking space. He went to the driver and asked him to move. Initially rankled, the man agreed and they shook hands.He returned to the apartment and interrupted the couple, telling them he was going to the store and would be right back for the pajamas. As he left, an acquaintance, Valente Flores, pulled into the parking lot.
Campos said Flores had earlier asked him to hold a key for him and now he wanted it back. Campos said he was in a hurry, the key was in his car and he would give it to him as soon as he returned. His wife had taken theirs and Lerma's four children to get pizza and he "didn't want to hear it" from her if he was delayed returning home.
He got into his car and started to back out when he looked in the rearview mirror through tinted windows and saw "shadows" or silhouettes of two people approaching from behind, one holding something in his hand.
"Growing up the way I did, I thought it was a gun," he said, adding that he could not see what the people were wearing.
"Out of nowhere, my door pops open," he said. "I thought, 'This is it' ... I thought I was going to die."
Campos said there had been 10 or 11 shootings in Salinas in the preceding three months, his house had been burglarized and, because he'd become an inactive gang member, "I'm a walking target."
He said he aimed his car for the driveway and sped away. As he backed onto Natividad, he heard shots fired. He slouched into the driver's seat, with one hand shifting gears and the other, with limited reach, incrementally steering the car onto the street. As more shots rang out, he said, he sped away.
Prosecutor David Rabow alleges Campos purposely steered toward Alford.
Believing he was being chased, Campos said, he fled to his father's in Fremont. When he found out on the news that night that his would-be "attackers" were peace officers, "I thought I was a dead man walking."
Under questioning by defense attorney Miguel Hernandez, Campos told how he had tried to reform himself since he was released from a two-year prison commitment in 2008.
At the time of the incident, he was attending technical school in Fremont. He said between his school and parental commitments he had no time or desire for gang life.
In cross-examination that will resume this morning, Rabow questioned Campos about his gang involvement and tattoos. According to earlier testimony, Campos is a registered gang member and is housed in a Norteño pod at the jail.
Other than a burglary he committed as a teen, he said, his only crimes were those for which he'd been convicted, weapon and drug charges.
Diaz, who was inside Lerma's apartment during the April 2009 incident, is charged with possession of drugs for sale.
On Tuesday, defense attorney Elizabeth Navarro had her investigator show jurors a duplicate of the window through which Rabow alleges Diaz threw the 31-pound safe.
The safe was found on the opposite side of a 6-foot fence and exhibited no markings to indicate it landed hard on the landscape rocks. In her opening statement, Navarro suggested the safe was left at the scene by Flores, the man who'd come looking for his key and who was arrested later carrying a large quantity of drugs and $600 cash.