Judge Bruce Chan clears first charge against African American men at preliminary hearing ahead of arraignment
Late Friday afternoon, a San Francisco judge dismissed premeditated murder charges filed against four African American Oakland men accused of engaging in gunfire with suspected Zoo Block gang members in June 2016. According to testimony provided by both the prosecution and defense, these four young men, while on a visit to San Francisco from Oakland, allegedly engaged in gunfire with occupants of a silver Jaguar. [2]
Maleek Christopher, 21, Rashaad and Raymon Hill, both 21, and Marquis Parker, 23, were present in the San Francisco Superior Court for one of many hearings on a number of charges filed against them for the incident, which occurred in the Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. Both Christopher and Parker are being held without bond at the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department. Both Raymon and Rashaad Hill are being held on $1 and $3.1 million dollar bonds, respectively. [1]
The impending charges against the men include shooting at an unoccupied vehicle, carrying a loaded firearm, the discharge of firearm at an inhabited enclosure, and assault with a semiautomatic firearm. [1]
The majority-white courtroom stood still for just a moment as the bailiff ushered in the accused, dressed in traditional fluorescent orange garments, shackles clanging as their feet shuffled towards the defense table. Here they sat together to face Judge Bruce Chan, interwoven by each of their corresponding attorneys. The room was empty, typical of a Friday afternoon hearing, no reporters, and no one in the gallery.
As an extension of an earlier hearing that morning, the prosecution began by reviewing the offer given to each of the men: 6 years for a felony with a strike, served at 50 percent of the time. Each defendant rejected the offer, and therefore, the offer was removed from the bench. The prosecution then began to explore their facts.
The scene of the suspected felony involved an exchange between the occupants of a silver Jaguar and the defendants’ Mazda. Shots were fired between the two vehicles occupants at 6:48 p.m. At one point, the prosecutor quoted the defendant as saying that one of the victims was “[shot] down to the white meat”. Of the two occupants of the Jaguar, one sustained minor graze wounds as a result of the gunfire.
According to testimony provided by all four-defense attorneys, the men travelled to San Francisco early that afternoon to allegedly visit Christopher’s girlfriend, who lived in the city. In a series of events that, as Parker’s attorney described, “reminded [her] of that Chuck Berry song”, the men allegedly aimlessly drove around San Francisco, as corroborated by cell phone tower pings presented as evidence, and found themselves in the neighborhood of Potrero Hill, between Washington and Missouri Streets.
While the area is notorious for crime, as pointed out by both the prosecution and defense, Raymon Hill’s attorney testified that it is also a common shortcut through the city that leads to Highway 280, and allegedly, their route home. It was here that the defendants, driving Christopher’s Mazda, found themselves in an exchange of gunfire.
According to his attorney via testimony given during an interview with police the day of his arrest, Rashaad was in the back of the Mazda, and heard gunfire. “They’re shooting at us,” he heard someone say, put his weapon outside of the car, and started firing. At the scene of the crime, police recovered 11 shell casings, of which only 3 could be attributed to the firearm recovered in possession of the defendants, according to the defense.
Rashaad’s attorney suggested “sloppy and incompetent police work” when addressing the investigation of the crime scene. To expand on this claim, Raymon Hill’s attorney stated, when citing reports from the auto-body shop that the Jaguar was taken to post-incident, that the auto-body shop claimed to have found a shell casing embedded in the car, but no such casing was ever presented for evidence, nor was it ever seen by any members of the defense team.
Additionally, she noted that the area was notorious for acts of gunfire, and that those shell casings could have come from anyone. With that information in hand, she requested that, with insufficient evidence, all charges against Raymon Hill be dropped. Judge Chan quickly dismissed this request.
The attorney for Marquis Parker also requested the dismissal of all charges against her client, claiming that there was no proof that Parker was even present at the time of the incident. Again citing the cell phone pings, or lack there of, Parker’s attorney stated that his cell phone had never pinged outside of Oakland on the day of the incident, indicating that he was not in San Francisco at the time, and therefore, not culpable.
The judge also quickly dismissed this notion, recalling the police identification of Parker based on his clothing, a description, and affiliation on the night of the incident. Parker’s attorney conceded, but stated that the officer who identified him, Sargent Jackson of the SFPD, only circumstantially identified Parker based on his clothing.
Following the testimony of all four attorneys, Judge Chan dismissed the charge of premeditated first-degree murder charges for all four men, but let the remaining several charges indicted against each defendant stand. The arraignment for all four defendants is set for April 27, 2018 at 9:00 a.m. [1]
- http://apps.sfgov.org/InmateInfo/
- Bayview District Mid-Week Recap (for reference to Zoo Block Gang, circa 2012) http://sfbos.org/sites/default/files/FileCenter/Documents/42310-Safety_Update_7-16-12.pdf
