OAKLAND — Two males who allegedly shot at one another in a 3:30 a.m. incident on an empty Oakland road have each been ordered to face trial on expenses that they murdered a passenger in one of many automobiles, court docket information present.
At a late July preliminary listening to, Willie Samuels, 28, and Fernando Sevilla, 41, have been ordered to face trial on expenses of murdering 19-year-old Madalyn Sandoval, of Brentwood. Each have pleaded not responsible, and a trial date has not but been set.
On the listening to, Oakland police Det. Michael Khem testified he didn’t know who fired the deadly shot, didn’t overview post-mortem images to search for stippling that will point out if the bullet was fired at shut vary, and didn’t know who fired first within the Nov. 6, 2020 shootout that left Sandoval lifeless.
However prosecutors argued none of these particulars matter.
“Whether or not or not Samuels shot first, Sevilla shot first, we might by no means really know. The vital half and the vital difficulty is that each males have been armed, each males shot, each males shot a number of instances, and their actions precipitated the demise of Ms. Sandoval,” deputy district legal professional Alexis Causey argued to Decide Mark McCannon. She cited a chunk of California regulation that claims two folks can contribute to somebody’s proximate explanation for demise.
Protection attorneys, in the meantime, every argued that the opposite particular person’s consumer deserved the blame.
Khem testified on the listening to that Sandoval was Samuel’s girlfriend, however that she left Sevilla’s Ford F-250 pickup truck and ran to Samuels’ Honda Accord shortly earlier than gunfire erupted. Due to that, Samuels’ lawyer, Robert Byers, implied that Sandoval was a intercourse employee, telling McCannon that the taking pictures occurred in “an space identified for prostitution” and that “we all know who the aggressor is.”
“Who of their proper thoughts would interpret the proof on this case and say that Mr. Samuels was not in a defensive place?,” Byers requested. “Not solely is he defending himself, he’s defending Ms. Sandoval.”
Martin Caraves, the legal professional representing Sevilla, argued not solely that prosecutors had didn't show who fired the deadly shot, however that they couldn’t show that Sandoval was killed in the course of the shootout.
“We don’t know if Mr. Samuels shot her within the automotive, or after the taking pictures incident within the alleyway and previous to dropping her off on the hospital, whether or not there was an argument between Mr. Samuels and Ms. Sandoval after which he shot her someplace on the street three, 4, 5 ft away,” Caraves mentioned. “There’s simply a lot we don’t know at this level.”
McCannon, in ordering each males to face trial, solely said on the file that there was sufficient proof to advance the case previous a preliminary listening to, which makes use of a possible trigger customary. It's a authorized burden a lot decrease than what juries are given when a prison case goes to trial.
Authorities say Sandoval was shot and killed on the 1800 block of Independence Manner in Oakland, and that Samuels drove her to the hospital after the taking pictures. Each suspects have been recognized as a result of police traced them again to their automobiles. The shootout was captured on a close-by resident’s safety footage.
Sevilla’s F-250 turned out to be an organization automotive for a Bay Space environmental providers enterprise, the place he labored. When police investigators went to the enterprise, they have been advised the automotive was beneath repairs in Richmond as a result of there had been points with the air con. Once they discovered the automotive at a Richmond restore store, there was proof that injury from gunfire had been repaired and painted over. The store’s proprietor and his son denied having accomplished these repairs, police mentioned.
Simply 4 days earlier than Sandoval was killed, Samuels had been injured in a taking pictures and required hospitalization, Khem testified.