Crime & Safety
Prosecutor Calls 2011 Shooting After Tattoo Party 'A Massacre'
Security was tight at the courthouse today
By Bay City News—
A shooting after a tattoo party in San Leandro in October 2011 that left three people dead and three others wounded was sparked by tensions between two rival gangs, a prosecutor told jurors today.
In his opening statement in the trial of three men who are accused of three counts of murder and four counts of attempted murder for the shooting, prosecutor Jimmie Wilson said the two gangs had been feuding for months and bad feelings erupted at the party at a warehouse in the 2600 block of Alvarado Street in San Leandro in the early morning hours of Oct. 2, 2011.
Wilson's statement at the trial, which was marked by unusually stringent security, was the first time that authorities disclosed the motive for the shooting.
Wilson said the members of the gang that was targeted in the shooting were talking loudly at the party but there's no evidence that they did anything to provoke the suspects to shoot them.
Wilson described the shooting as "a massacre" because the victims were shot as they sat in a green Ford Explorer that had been blocked from leaving the warehouse's parking lot by another car.
Killed were 23-year-old Joshua Alford of Oakland, Leneasha Northington, 16, a student at San Leandro High School, and Shanice Kiel, 19, of San Francisco, who had been accepted at San Francisco State University.
Alford and two associates who were shot but survived were the targets of the shooting, Wilson said. Standing trial are Aaron Stewart, 21, of Fairfield, Anthony Perry, 23, of Oakland and Paul Arthur Stevenson, 22, of Oakland.
A fourth man, Stanley Turner, 20, of Oakland, faced similar charges for the shooting but in December he entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors that calls for him to be found guilty of a lesser charge and receive a light sentence if he testifies truthfully against the other three men.
Turner, who is expected to testify later this week, wasn't charged with being one of the shooters in the incident but prosecutors have said that he provided one of the guns that was used in the shooting and drove the other suspects out of the area to avoid arrest.
Wilson said there's evidence that Stewart, Perry and Stevenson all were armed at the party and all fired shots. But defense lawyers for the three suspects sought to downplay the roles they played in the shooting. Stevenson's lawyer, Alex Selvin, said the evidence will show that Perry and Stewart were the only shooters in the case and argued that there's no evidence that Stevenson fired any shots.
But Stewart's lawyer, Thomas Broome, said Stewart didn't fire any shots because his gun jammed. Broome admitted that Stewart was armed with a gun but said "the gun didn't discharge."
Broome told jurors, "There's very conflicting evidence in this case" and "there are fairly substantial conflicts between witnesses." Perry's lawyer, Darryl Stallworth, said he believes there only were two shooters in the incident and Perry wasn't one of them.
Stallworth said there wasn't any strong evidence indicating that Perry fired shots until Turner came forward and told prosecutors that Perry said after the shooting that he had "emptied" his gun by firing at the victims. Stallworth told jurors to disregard Turner's testimony, saying it can't be trusted because he thinks Turner is lying in order to save his own skin.
"You can't convict Mr. Perry based on the testimony of a snitch, a rat and a liar," Stallworth said, using those words in reference to Turner.
He said at the end of the trial he will ask jurors to find Perry not guilty. Six bailiffs guarded the courtroom of Alameda County Superior Court Judge Kevin Murphy and two other bailiffs stood watch outside the courtroom.
In order to get into the courtroom, spectators had to go through two metal detectors, one at the entrance to the courthouse and another at the courtroom's entrance.
Jittery bailiffs threw out a news reporter who was looking at her cell phone when court wasn't in session and also threw out several people for talking or for trying to communicate with the defendants.
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