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Tag: oakland murder

  • ‘He was already down’: Two agree to 12 years in prison for killing man at Oakland park

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    OAKLAND — Two men have agreed to serve 12-year prison terms for beating another man to death at a park in a broad daylight attack, court records show.

    Melvin Espinolobo, 24, and Alexander Garciaamaya, 29, both pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in the May 10, 2020 killing of 28-year-old Jose Mejia-Lemus. They remain at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin with the expectation of being formally sentenced in December.

    The attack was witnessed by passers-by and others at the Josie de la Cruz Park at 1637 Fruitvale Ave. Authorities say a little after 3 p.m., one of the two suspects argued with Mejia-Lemus, then retrieved two bats from a nearby homeless encampment where they lived. One of the suspects was seen with a machete, according to police testimony.

    An eyewitness testified at the 2022 preliminary hearing that Mejia-Lemus pleaded “leave me alone” as he was being killed, but that both men continued to hit him.

    “The worst thing was when he was already down on the ground they just kept beating him,” the man testified. Another witness testified that Mejia-Lemus claimed to have a knife, but others said he was unarmed, according to court records.

    The two men were arrested and charged shortly after the homicide and their case has been pending ever since. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors are dropping murder charges against both men, court records show.

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    Nate Gartrell

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  • Oakland: ‘Scrappy’ bragged about killing ‘Mini Jug’ before ‘Bubba’ and ‘Frog’ killed him, police say

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    OAKLAND — Homicide investigators were on the verge of potentially solving two killings, if only they could figure out everyone’s nickname.

    The 2020 shooting death of 37-year-old Charles “Scrappy” King Jr. had gone unsolved for years, but in 2024 a man facing federal gun charges in Stockton agreed to tell police who had done it. It was “Lil Bubba,” the eyewitness told authorities, who’d shot a belligerent “Scrappy” as the victim was bragging about having killed “Mini Jug” in the same area weeks earlier, according to court records.

    Police soon identified “Lil Bubba” as 47-year-old Ahmad Wyatt, and a second suspect was later identified as Andre “Frog” Heard, 44, court records show. Both were charged in 2024, and have since resolved their cases.

    Heard pleaded no contest to assault with a firearm for a three-year prison term, and Wyatt was sentenced to 11 years after pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter, court records show. Wyatt was transferred to North Kern State Prison on Sept. 18.

    Police were later able to identify “Mini Jug” as 46-year-old Karlin Watts, who was shot and killed on Sept. 19, 2019, while standing on the 1400 block of 85th Avenue in Oakland, authorities said. Five months later, on Feb. 12, 2020, King was shot and killed at the same location, allegedly after bragging about having killed Watts, antagonizing passers-by, and knocking Wyatt down during a confrontation.

    I guess he felt he was big (expletive) because of what he did. He thought people were scared of him,” the witness who came forward after catching a federal gun case testified at the 2024 preliminary hearing. An Oakland detective later testified that it was widely believed around that neighborhood that King had killed Watts.

    After being shot, King allegedly attempted to run away, leaving a blood trail and limping from the area as he yelled, “I’m hit.” Then one of the suspects allegedly fired again, killing him.

    At the preliminary hearing, Judge Rhonda Burgess doubted the defendants fired at King simply to scare him, saying that based on King’s reputation as a killer that would be like “poking the bear.” She also said that King seemed to be going out of his way to anger people.

    “Mr. King has certainly done a lot that evening to make a lot of enemies,” Burgess said.

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    Nate Gartrell

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  • Oakland man gets probation in gas station shootout that killed two

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    OAKLAND — One of the alleged gunman in a wild 2023 double homicide has been sentenced to probation and time he had already served in jail, court records show.

    In a plea deal with prosecutors, Sir Cameron Young, 23, pleaded no contest to an assault weapon possession charge in exchange for the probation sentence. Prosecutors dropped other charges of assault and gun possession as part of the deal, court records show.

    Young was implicated — along with another man who faced similar charges and a third man who didn’t — in a June 2023 shootout at a gas station on 66th Avenue in Oakland, where 23-year-old Idriek Patterson, of Newark, and 25-year-old Anteasa Collins, of Stockton, were killed. Other participants included Damarea Jones, 32, and Dominic Gates, 31, according to police.

    Jones was charged with gun possession and pleaded no contest in October 2023, receiving probation. Gates was never charged, but he was later implicated in a high-profile murder case that fell apart over self-defense claims, court records show.

    Authorities alleged that around 5:30 a.m. on June 4, 2023, Patterson, Jones, and a woman pulled up in a Buick, and were spotted by Gates and Young, who ran up and began shooting. Patterson was killed while attempting to run for cover, and Collins — who allegedly arrived with Young and Gates and had a tattoo that said “Dominic” on her neck — was killed a few moments later.

    While Gates avoided criminal charges in the shooting, he was later charged with failing to register as a sex offender, due to a prior conviction of pimping a girl 16 or younger, court records show. Then, in 2024, Gates and Richard James Romano were both charged with murdering Alliauna Green, a rising Oakland rapper who used the stage name Tan DaGod.

    But much like the June 2023 shootout, Green’s July 2024 killing was fraught with legal issues and self-defense claims. Police testimony revealed that Green actually fired first at Gates and Romano after they allegedly pulled guns, but that the guns were pulled after Green allegedly threatened the men. Defense attorneys argued Green was posturing because her public image was dependent on false claims she’d made, like pretending to have killed an abusive ex-boyfriend in self-defense and pulling a public stunt where she claimed to smoke his ashes in a marijuana cigar.

    As a result of all this, Gates and Romano pleaded no contest to gun charges and were released from jail. Like Young, they were sentenced to time they’d already served behind bars, court records show.

    While Young’s case was pending, he was initially released from jail, but then re-arrested after failing to appear in court. A judge denied a defense motion to release him from jail, which cited Young’s lack of criminal history and said he is the “sole provider” for his growing family.

    “Mr. Young is the sole provider for his infant. Mr. Young’s girlfriend is pregnant. The two of them have struggled to maintain consistent housing throughout the pendency of this case,” defense lawyer Jesse Adams wrote in a declaration filed in court.

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    Nate Gartrell

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  • Murder case dismissed against suspect in Oakland Uber driver’s killing during robbery

    Murder case dismissed against suspect in Oakland Uber driver’s killing during robbery

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    OAKLAND — Months after a judge tossed the murder case against one of two suspects in the killing of a local Uber driver, prosecutors reached a plea agreement that will result in a two-and-a-half-year prison term, court records show.

    Major Willis, 21, was initially charged with murdering 52-year-old Kon Woo Fung, who was shot and killed during an attempted robbery in Oakland. Last November, Judge Thomas Reardon agreed with a defense motion and dismissed the murder charge, finding that Willis was not legally liable for the alleged actions of his teenaged co-defendant, who is believed to have fired the fatal shots.

    More recently, Willis agreed to plead no contest to attempted carjacking. He is expected to be sentenced on Sept. 19 to 30 months in state prison, court records show.

    Willis’ co-defendant, 18-year-old Tristen Bengco, was charged in juvenile court because he was 17 at the time Fung was killed. Prosecutors say that on the morning of July 17, 2022 the two ran up to Fung’s parked vehicle on East 22nd Street, attempted to force him out of his car and that Bengco killed him during the attempt. The pair abandoned the robbery and fled after the shot rang out.

    But Willis’ lawyer argued that the shooting was accidental and that Willis was powerless to stop him. The defense conceded that Willis knew Bengco had a firearm that day, which prosecutors say he later admitted to the police.

    “Whether Willis was standing next to the shooter Tristen, or a block away, it would have made little difference in stopping an unplanned, impulsive and possibly accidental discharge of Tristen’s gun,” Willis’ lawyer wrote in court filings.

    Prosecutors, in their response motion, argued that Willis and Bengco were “on the same page” about how to carry out the robbery, including the use of the gun. After the killing, Willis and Bengco ran away and ended up ditching their car in San Francisco in an attempt to distance themselves from the suspect vehicle. In doing so, they both made a choice not to help Fung as he lay dying of a gunshot wound, prosecutors argued.

    “This shows a lack of empathy that rises to literal indifference to human life,” Deputy District Attorney Emily Tienken wrote in the failed response to the defense motion to dismiss.

    Willis has been in jail for nearly two years while the case has been pending. With good behavior credits it is unlikely he’ll be in custody for much longer, though a judge still needs to do that arithmetic at his sentencing hearing.

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    Nate Gartrell

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  • Alleged Oakland gang leader was on a mission for revenge after brother’s homicide, police say. Now the feds have taken the case

    Alleged Oakland gang leader was on a mission for revenge after brother’s homicide, police say. Now the feds have taken the case

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    OAKLAND — A man who allegedly cut off his ankle monitor and absconded from parole just three days after finishing a 17-year prison sentence has been hit with a federal gun charge, court records show.

    Terrance King, 30, was arrested after police received a tip he was coming to the Bay Area from Southern California in search of whoever killed his brother in Oakland, while King was still in prison. When authorities caught up to him in San Leandro, he was allegedly carrying a satchel with an AK-47-style pistol and attempted to evade arrest, prosecutors allege.

    King was initially charged with a probation violation and illegal gun possession, but now he faces a federal charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm. In a bid to keep King in jail while the case is pending, prosecutors not only referred to him as an Oakland “gang leader” but also said that ballistics examiners found a “preliminary correlation” between the gun and three prior shootings that occurred before King’s release, including a June 19 mass shooting in Oakland.

    King’s attorney in the state case filed court papers saying he came to the Bay Area to round up his family and leave the area, not for a nefarious purpose.

    A federal magistrate signed off on King’s detention, citing the facts of the case and King’s alleged gang membership.

    King was among 17 alleged members of the Oakland-based Case Gang arrested in 2013. The defendants faced charges ranging from robbery and assault to pimping, and King eventually took a plea deal and a 17-year sentence, records show.

    Last April, King’s 25-year-old brother, Hodari Lyons, was shot and killed on the 6900 block of Hamilton Street in East Oakland. When prison officials and authorities learned that Lyons was King’s brother, a group of law enforcement officials from Oakland police, the California Department Of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and a parole officer met with King in prison to dissuade him from retaliating, according to authorities.

    King paroled into Southern California on June 28. By July 1, police say, he had removed his ankle monitor and was wanted on a so-called parolee-at-large warrant.

     

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    Nate Gartrell

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  • Two charged in Oakland double homicide; police say one victim was armed

    Two charged in Oakland double homicide; police say one victim was armed

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    OAKLAND — After being arrested at a Bay Area beach, a man and woman have been charged in connection with a recent quadruple shooting here, court records show.

    DeJuan Pickens, 34, of Concord, was charged Thursday with two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The charges stem from the Aug. 17 Oakland shooting that resulted in two deaths and two injuries.

    On the same criminal complaint, 33-year-old Rebecca Taylor, of Oakland, was charged with helping Pickens escape. She faces a felony count of accessory after the fact.

    Both defendants are being held without bail and were advised of the charges at their first court hearings on Thursday, records show.

    Police say the shooting resulted from an argument between Taylor and three other people, near Taylor’s apartment on the 1600 block of 83rd Avenue in East Oakland. Pickens was there and saw that one of the involved parties — police haven’t said who — had a gun on them, according to court records.

    Pickens then retrieved a gun from a satchel and opened fire at the three people Taylor was arguing with, as well as the fourth armed person, authorities said. After the shooting, the two fled but were eventually arrested at McNears Beach in Marin County on Aug. 19, records show.

    The two homicide victims have been identified in court papers as Waltrice Dilliehunt and Tyrell Bland. Their ages weren’t immediately available.

    After her arrest, Taylor “provided a full confession” to police and admitted to helping Pickens flee, police said in court papers. Pickens refused to talk to authorities and asked for a lawyer.

    The two surviving victims required hospitalization, authorities said.

    Police are expected to announce the charges at a news conference set for noon on Friday.

    Check back for updates

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    Nate Gartrell, Jakob Rodgers

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