OAKLAND — After Richmond resident Michael Mayfield was stabbed to loss of life at a Berkeley residence in February 2010, the prime suspect, Kevin Alvardo, spent 11 years evading seize earlier than being arrested in Mexico.
Now, only a 12 months since his arrest, 34-year-old Alvarado is a free man as soon as once more: Alvarado had been charged with murdering Mayfield with an enhancement alleging use of a knife, however a choose dismissed all felony prices in opposition to him at a preliminary listening to late final month.
A courtroom order from Alvarado’s March 24 preliminary listening to says Decide Scott Patton discovered the fees have been “unsupported by the proof and finds no enough trigger to carry the defendant to reply.” Three days earlier, Alvarado’s lawyer had filed a short arguing that the killing was justifiable self-defense.
Mayfield, 40, was stabbed to loss of life at round 7:40 p.m. on Feb. 11, 2010, at a house on the 2100 block of Curtis Avenue in Berkeley. Witnesses recognized Alvarado because the stabber, and authorities alleged on the time he was a member of a west Berkeley subset of a Northern California avenue gang.
Alvarado was one in every of many pals hanging out contained in the Curtis Avenue dwelling, together with Robert Briggs, who would later turn out to be Alvarado’s co-defendant and plead no contest to an assault cost.
Alvarado is believed to have fled to Mexico shortly after the killing. He was arrested there and extradited to america in August 2021.
However in pretrial hearings, the prosecution’s case started to falter, in keeping with courtroom papers filed by Alvarado’s lawyer. It happened when witnesses who have been contained in the Curtis Avenue dwelling testified that Mayfield had threatened a lady within the group, telling her, “I’m coming over, I’m going to (expletive) you up.”
Mayfield had dated the girl, who was additionally romantically concerned with Briggs, in keeping with witnesses.
In what one witness described as a chaotic “ruckus” that adopted, Mayfield got here to the house and started loudly pounding on the door. One other resident started trying to find a baseball bat, later noting that Mayfield was “a giant man,” whereas Briggs instructed individuals to not open the door.
A witness additionally instructed police he noticed Alvarado open the entrance door after which “a stabbing movement.” Afterwards, Briggs, Alvarado, and others chased Mayfield and Briggs allegedly hit him with a pipe, authorities say.
In his temporary arguing the fees needs to be tossed, Alvarado’s lawyer, Jesse Garcia, cited a bit of California legislation that claims a murder will be justifiable when an individual makes use of lethal power to defend in opposition to somebody breaking into a house, if they've an inexpensive worry that the intruder was going to kill or critically harm a number of of the occupants.
Prosecutors didn’t file a response to Garcia’s movement and haven’t re-filed the homicide case, although they’re allowed a second likelihood after a felony case is dismissed as soon as.
Briggs — initially charged with assault and accent within the wake of Mayfield’s loss of life — finally accepted a plea deal that received him 41 days in jail and a misdemeanor assault conviction. He additionally acquired a five-year probation time period, courtroom information present.