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News | Police & Fire

Malibu Man Accused of Shooting Neighbor Pleads Not Guilty

Patrick Kearns Leach is accused of shooting his neighbor during a dispute on a driveway they share on Winding Way in Malibu.

Posted by City News Service, 
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A Malibu man accused of shooting his neighbor during a dispute last month pleaded not guilty Tuesday to attempted murder.

Patrick Kearns Leach, 27, is also charged with one count of assault with a semi-automatic firearm in connection with the Jan. 9 shooting of his neighbor on a driveway the two share on West Winding Way.

The victim, 49-year-old Eric Shanks, was shot in the chest with a .45-caliber pistol.

Leach is free on $1 million bail while awaiting his next appearance in Van Nuys Superior Court March 18, when a date is scheduled to be set for a hearing to determine if there is enough evidence to require him to stand trial.

Leach is the son of the co-creator of the PBS show "Barney and Friends," and Sheryl Leach, a former school teacher in Texas.

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Max May 23, 2013 at 01:54 pm
@hellwood. What you say is true also. Based on your assessment, all sports and visitors to our…Read More parks should be prohibited. Why? After every sporting event, and, after most weekends, I see all forms of trash littered throughout the park, the baseball fields, the parking lots, etc. And, all this in the PRESENCE of trash containers. When I approached a parent that littering is not only illegal; and, that birds mistake pieces of plastic as food which, as a result, kill them as well as their babies; and, that peanut shells attract rodents; and, also that allowing their kids (and, the parents) to litter is NOT a way to instill good habits amongst the children, I was told, "That's why we pay taxes...so that the city workers can clean up this mess." Could it be that some of these parents also own beach homes?
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@max what you say is all true however, I live at a beach access, and there was minimal trash before…Read More it was opened to the public. after the gate was opened, the beach and highway were transformed into a dump. after a busy weekend there is crap scattered all over the place, and no way to clean it up. for every jerk homeowner here in malibu, there are at least a hundred visitors who need to be taught some manners. watching people under homes crapping while their dogs crap all up and down, setting up shop on people's decks and stairs with BBQ's and coolers, and using the residents showers and hoses is really getting old. there are no restrooms, no trash cans on the beach, and the county doesn't maintain most of these beaches which means the locals are left with the mess.
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Sulah cat, My posts have demonstrated my belief that the “Malibu Lagoon Restoration…Read More Project” is a name that may have been created in order to mislead people into thinking it that the project would be a worthwhile public expense. The idea of restoring the Lagoon isn’t necessarily a bad idea. That being said, I believe the money spent to alter the Lagoon could have been spent in many other ways that would have served the public better. Why do you attack me personally? First, you say I’m not a car guy and then you accuse me being into flat head Fords? Fords, really? Sincerely yours,
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