"The shooting, captured on video, occurred on the 6900 block of International Boulevard in East Oakland. Black accused 55-year-old Roger Johnson, of Hayward, of stepping on his shoe and showed Johnson the butt of an AR-style weapon he had at his waistband, which the defense said was meant to deter Johnson from escalating it into a fight. Instead, Johnson attempted to grab the gun and Black allegedly shot at Johnson during the fracas, killing Johnson's friend, 55-year-old James Stephens, according to court records."
"Jurors nearly reached a verdict, voting 11-1 on the murder charge and 10-1, with one abstention, on a voluntary manslaughter count, according to a note to the judge that doesn't say which way they were leaning. The defendant, Harry Black, 26, testified in his trial that he believed the victim's friend was attempting to grab his gun and shoot him with it after a confrontation that could have been solved with an apology."
"Coincidentally, Johnson himself once faced a murder charge in Alameda County and prosecutors even weighed death penalty charges against him. He was charged in 2002 with being the getaway driver for two gunmen who killed a Brinks armored car driver, Dena Monique Daniels, during a holdup that year in Berkeley. Johnson later accepted a manslaughter conviction as part of a plea deal, court records show."
A jury acquitted Harry Black of first-degree murder for a Jan. 1, 2023 shooting outside a smoke shop on International Boulevard in East Oakland. Jurors were deadlocked on the remaining counts, including second-degree murder and manslaughter, with near-verdict votes reported. Video shows Black display the butt of an AR-style weapon after an altercation in which Roger Johnson allegedly stepped on Black's shoe and then grabbed at the gun. The struggle resulted in Black firing and killing 55-year-old James Stephens while Johnson was shot in the leg. Johnson previously pleaded to manslaughter in an unrelated 2002 case.
Read at The Mercury News
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]