OAKLAND — An Antioch man has accepted a plea deal and a 21-year jail time period within the 2017 killing of a person who the protection says was his lifelong good friend, court docket information present.
Artisan Manalastas, 36, pleaded no contest to manslaughter and shall be eligible for a 15 p.c sentence discount, with good habits. He receives credit score for the previous 5 years he has spent in Santa Rita Jail awaiting decision in his case.
In 2017, Manalastas was charged with murdering 32-year-old Andrew Williams, a resident of San Pablo and Oakland, on June 4 of that yr. Prosecutors alleged that Williams and Manalastas have been in the identical automotive when the taking pictures occurred, round 3:20 a.m., and that Williams was pushed out of the automotive into the roadway within the 1600 block of Linden Road.
Whilst Manalastas accepted a manslaughter conviction, his lawyer, Seth Morris, wrote in court docket information that he believes it was a case of lawful self-defense. Morris mentioned Manalastas has prior convictions and was not totally truthful with police, which raised sufficient threat that he wished to keep away from a life sentence. The plea deal will assist Manalastas get again to his two daughters comparatively quickly, he wrote.
In Manalastas’ preliminary listening to, prosecutors pointed to inconsistent statements Manalastas made after voluntarily showing at an Oakland police station to speak concerning the case. They argued he lied about taking BART that evening, and later mentioned he slept on a bench in Oakland, as a result of he wished to distance himself from the automotive used within the murder.
The identical day he was arrested, the automotive was discovered. It had been pushed down an embankment on Grizzly Peak in Oakland. The automotive, a Cadillac, was seen leaving the realm the place Williams’ physique was dumped and later that day crossed the Carquinez Bridge into Vallejo, police mentioned.
Morris wrote in a sentencing transient that the 2 had been associates for years, had gone out consuming with two girls that evening, and ended up in a heated argument contained in the automotive that culminated with a wrestle over Williams’ firearm. He referred to as it a “tragic” occasion of lawful self-defense.