A 21-year-old man charged in a crime spree that left three people dead in a string of convenience store and fast food robberies across Southern California was ordered Thursday to stand trial on murder and other charges.
The ruling followed a preliminary hearing that included a videotaped questioning by police in which Malik Donyae Patt referred to some of the victims as "white devils" and claimed responsibility for three additional shootings that apparently didn't happen.
Patt is charged with three counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder, three counts of robbery and a count of carjacking while armed stemming from the violent crime spree that primarily targeted 7-Eleven stores on July 11 -- or 7/11 -- of last year. The charges against Patt include special circumstance allegations of multiple murders and murder in the commission of a robbery.
The case also includes various sentencing enhancements for personal use or discharge of a handgun.
Gus Moroyoqui, when he was a detective for Santa Ana police last year, interviewed Patt about the shootings and robberies. He testified that Patt claimed that he went on a robbery spree starting in January of last year that began by targeting Subway restaurants, then moved to Yum Yum Donuts and 7- Eleven stores. He claimed up to 40 to 50 robberies throughout the Southland that included holdups at check-cashing businesses and banks, Moroyoqui said. Patt told the detective he switched back to fast-food and convenience stores because it was "more convenient" to rob them because they lack "bulletproof" shields.
Initially, Patt is seen during the questioning denying any knowledge about the string shootings, even as Moroyoqui showed him crime scene photos.
"I don't know nothing about no robbery," Patt said. "I don't know nothing about what happened at the doughnut shop."
At one point he dismissively flipped one of the photos onto the floor. But he was shaken when the detective said he showed it to a family member of the suspect.
Patt mumbled "death penalty?" before insisting that co-defendant Jason Lamont Payne was not involved.
"Keep my uncle out of this. He had nothing to do with this," Patt said, referring to Payne, who was a friend and not actually related to Patt. Payne pleaded guilty to four felony counts of robbery with sentencing enhancements for using a gun and was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Patt said in the interview he did not hurt the clerk at a Yum Yum Donuts shop at 2441 N. Tustin St. in Santa Ana because he appeared to be of Indian descent, he said. He acknowledged that he put his arm around the clerk at one point as he stole $200 from the cash drawer and another $200 from a safe because he wanted him to know he wasn't in danger, he said.
"That's my people," he said of the clerk's ethnicity.
When he was asked why he shot 24-year-old Matthew Rule outside a 7- Eleven store at 302 E. 17th St. in Santa Ana, Patt said noted that the victim was white.
When questioned why he spared the other man in the parking lot with Rule, Patt said, "The other dude, he didn't look white. He might have been, but I don't know."
When asked about shooting a victim at a 7-Eleven store in Brea, Patt said he was "(expletive)-talking... He said something. I don't know."
Later in the interview, Patt said, "What's his last name? Hirsch," in reference to the victim, 40-year-old Matthew Hirsch.
As for the two victims shot in a 7-Eleven in La Habra that night, Patt said, "I don't remember." He said he recalled shooting through the passenger side window of a vehicle.
When he was asked about a victim of a shooting earlier that night at a 7-Eleven store in Riverside, Patt said, "That devil?"
When pressed on whether race motivated him, Patt said, "The white man is the devil."
At one point during questioning, Patt denied that the suspect seen in the surveillance video photos was him.
"That ain't me," he said, adding, "Malik Patt wouldn't have thought of this."
When Moroyoqui asked Patt, "Well, what's his name," pointing to the suspect photo, Patt did not respond.
Moroyoqui later asked Patt what he did with the hoodie he was seen wearing in surveillance video photos.
"C'mon, I got rid of that sweatshirt," Patt said, adding that he burned it the next day.
The crime spree began July 9, 2022, with the killing of a homeless man in the 16100 block of Parthenia Street, near Woodley Avenue, in North Hills. That killing happened about 200 yards from a 7-Eleven store that was robbed later that day.
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Patt struggled to explain why he shot the victim, who had asked Patt for money. He said the homeless victim he shot spoke to him, but, "He didn't say something insulting, but he said something."
Patt acknowledged during questioning he was aware of the news coverage of the shootings and said he killed "that homeless man up in North Hollywood," according to the video shown in court.
Authorities said the 7-Eleven crime spree on July 11, 2022, began in Ontario. Police said just after midnight, the 7-Eleven at 636 N. Vine Ave. was robbed. The suspect held up the store with a handgun, but no shots were fired and no one was injured.
At 1:35 a.m., the 7-Eleven store at 2410 W. Arrow Route in Upland was robbed, police said.
At 1:50 a.m., the 7-Eleven store at 5102 La Sierra Ave. in Riverside was robbed by a gunman. That robbery escalated, with the suspect shooting a customer, who was hospitalized.
Minutes after 3 a.m. July 11, the Yum Yum Donuts shop at 2441 N. Tustin St. in Santa Ana was robbed, police said. About 20 minutes later, Rule of Santa Ana was fatally shot outside the 7-Eleven store at 302 E. 17th St. in Santa Ana.
Santa Ana Police Department Chief David Valentin said last year that Rule was not the primary target of the shooter. The gunman was targeting someone else, but Rule "stepped in" to "redirect" the robber and was shot, Valentin said.
Brea police said they responded at 4:17 a.m. to the 7-Eleven store at 109 W. Lambert Road and found a male store clerk fatally shot in what officers determined to be a robbery. The clerk was later identified as Hirsch, who died at the scene, police said.
About a half-hour later, the 7-Eleven store at 381 E. Whittier Blvd. in La Habra was robbed, and two people were shot, according to Sgt. Eric Roy of the La Habra Police Department. Both victims were taken to a hospital and survived. Police said the victims were a clerk and a customer.
Based on surveillance images, police said they were able to link the same suspect to all of the heists.
The robberies that occurred in Ontario and Upland will be prosecuted in San Bernardino County.
Patt claimed during questioning that he fatally shot more victims than he is charged with killing.
"For sure dead?" he said before a long pause. "Probably like seven."
He claimed to be responsible for fatal shootings in Topanga, in "Dodge City" and Fullerton.
In Topanga, he claimed someone was trying to rob him.
"He tried me," Patt said. "He thought he was going to get over on me... Ain't nobody robbing me."
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In the other alleged shooting he said he injured a man's leg and shot him in the back of the head.
"That was last year," he said. "That's old (expletive)."
In Fullerton, he implied a man was flirting with him in the parking lot of a grocery store in July of 2021, which led to a "tussle, tussle." Patt said the man "wasn't white, wasn't Hispanic. He was something else."
Moroyoqui testified that he referred the claims of the fatal shootings to Los Angeles County authorities and Fullerton. He wasn't aware if Los Angeles County authorities found anything to investigate, but he added that Fullerton detectives told him they did not have any open cases.
Patt's attorney, Mick Hill, asked Moroyoqui if his client was "exaggerating," but Orange County Superior Court Judge Gary Paer sustained objections from prosecutors of speculation.
Patt was scheduled to be arraigned on Aug. 25.
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