February 11, 2023

USA: Commie Oakland District Attorney Offered Man Accused Of Killing 3 Facing A Sentence Of 75 Years To Life A Plea Deal That Could See Him Released In Just Some Years.

KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco published February 10, 2023: Oakland man offerered controversial plea deal for triple murder. DA Pamela Price offered Oakland man accused of killing 3 facing a sentence of 75 years to life a plea deal that could see him released in just some years, causing controversy.

San Francisco Chronicle
written by Michael Cabanatuan, Joel Umanzor
Friday February 10, 2023

An Oakland man accused of killing three people, including a witness in a criminal case, was offered a 15-year sentence by Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price in a plea deal Thursday — instead of the potential 75-years-to-life sentence he faced under his original charges.

The negotiated terms were so unusual that Alameda County Superior Court Judge Mark McCannon said he needed more time to consider whether he would sign off on the drastically reduced sentence, an attorney representing the defendant said.

Delonzo Logwood, 31, had just turned 18 at the time he was arrested in 2008 in connection with three fatal shootings.

Thursday’s plea deal stipulated that Logwood enter a no-contest plea to voluntary manslaughter and a gun enhancement for shooting and killing Eric Ford, 22, on July 1, 2008, according to defense attorney David Briggs, who represents Logwood.

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, who negotiated the deal, was elected on a platform that promised to give younger defenders a break. Price is aligned with a national movement of progressives attempting to reduce mass incarceration and push for reforms at the county level by seeking top prosecutor seats. She has also pledged to resentence people facing life without parole, and to prosecute police misconduct.

One of her first actions, after taking office, was to reopen investigations for eight police shootings and in-custody deaths, including two cases more than a decade old.

A representative for the District Attorney's Office was not immediately available for comment.
San Francisco Chronicle
written by Rachel Swan
Friday February 10, 2023

The mother of a man killed during an Oakland carjacking in 2008 was angered and bewildered to learn that Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price has cut a plea deal to drop the murder charge against the defendant in her son’s case.

“It’s wrong. It’s unfair. It’s unjust,” said the mother of Richard Carter, 30, one of three people who prosecutors have said were slain by Delonzo Logwood. She asked not to be identified by name out of fear for her safety. “I’m angry, I’m upset, but what can I do? Who can I talk to? I wish I knew people in high places.”

She said she had not attended a court hearing Thursday during which prosecutors presented a plea deal negotiated by Price. According to court documents, the deal struck down a lengthy list of felony charges against Logwood, 31, who had been accused of shooting and killing Carter in Fruitvale shortly after Logwood turned 18.

In the original criminal complaint, filed in 2018, prosecutors working for former District Attorney Nancy O’Malley charged Logwood and co-defendant Dijon Holifield with a raft of felonies, including three murders — among them Carter’s killing — in addition to gang enhancements that carry a sentence of up to life imprisonment.

But in the plea deal filed Thursday, Price dropped the murder charges and charged Logwood with one killing: voluntary manslaughter in the slaying of Eric Ford, who was gunned down at a Fruitvale gas station on July 1, 2008. He would face 15 years in prison with credit for the 8 years already served at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.

District Attorney Inspector James Rullamas described Logwood as a hired hit man in Ford's killing, saying in a probable cause declaration that Ford had “previously committed a robbery against somebody,” who then put out a contract for Ford’s killing. A witness saw Logwood and Holifield approach Ford with guns and then flee after the witness heard gunshots. Later, according to the declaration, the witness heard Logwood “make a statement similar to ‘It’s done.’ ”

The terms of the plea deal also included a gun enhancement. Logwood pleaded no contest to the new charges.

Judge Mark McCannon said he would need more time to consider the terms of the plea deal before issuing a final order.

In a statement Friday, Price explained her decision for the plea deal.

“Given the state of the evidence and the age of the cases, our office concluded it was in the interests of justice to resolve the prosecution of Mr. Logwood with a plea to multiple crimes in connection with the murder of Eric Ford,” Price said. She added that Logwood had expressed “extreme remorse for his behavior as a teenager, and readily agreed to publicly apologize to the families impacted by his demeanor, and to the residents of Alameda County.”

Price blamed her predecessor, O’Malley, for the delay resolving the case, and thousands of others “where families, survivors, witnesses and defendants have been left ‘in limbo.’ ” O’Malley did not immediately return phone calls on Friday.

Carter, an Oakland resident, had gone to a store off of Fruitvale Avenue to buy snacks for his pregnant wife, and he encountered two men with guns as he backed out of a driveway next to the shop, his mother said. When he tried to drive past the gunmen, they started firing, she added. Carter died of gunshot wounds on the way to the hospital.

Police arrested Logwood for the slaying seven years later, on Aug. 13, 2015, and also charged him with murder in the killing of Zaire Washington, a witness to another shooting, and Ford.

Carter’s mother told The Chronicle on Friday that she wanted to see Logwood held accountable for the slaying of her son.

“He needs to serve life, just like my son doesn’t have his life,” she said.

Price won election in November by casting herself as a staunch criminal justice reformer who would alleviate mass incarceration, re-sentence people facing life in prison, give people younger than 25 a break, and emphasize prosecutions for police misconduct. Since winning office she’s become a prominent figure in a national movement to elect progressives into top prosecutor jobs in order to overhaul criminal justice.

The new district attorney launched her administration by reopening investigations into eight police shootings and in-custody deaths, two of which are more than a decade old. She promised to take “a more nuanced approach” when considering punishments for defendants, evaluating not only the circumstances of the crime, but also the strength of the evidence, the defendant’s age, the person’s behavior in custody and the possibility of reintegrating the person back into society, noted former federal prosecutor Laurie Levenson, who is now a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

“She’s looking at things differently than that office traditionally has, and she’s transparent about that,” Levenson said.

Former Alameda County prosecutor Darryl Stallworth, who is now a defense attorney, cautioned that every case is complicated, and that facts alone don’t determine an appropriate sentence.

“The public can’t really understand all the layers that are involved, and everybody coming together to get a resolution,” he said.

Posted by Princess Mononoke at 6:01 PM

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