Eyewitness struggles to recall Blacknell at scene of carjacking in Richmond case

One witness didn’t show, two were several hours late, and the most pivotal one had a foggy memory.

On the fifth day of testimony in one of the most anticipated criminal cases coming out of Richmond in recent years, the prosecution slogged through a series of unwanted developments and uncooperative witnesses.

“So you’re saying all of the testimony here is the truth?” Deputy District Attorney Derek Butts asked his witness, who appeared to contradict his own testimony on several occasions. “Yeah,” the man, an Oakland native, replied, shrugging.

Butts tossed his yellow legal pad onto his desk.

The Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office has charged Joe Blacknell III with 22 felonies stemming from an alleged 2009 crime spree in Oakland and Richmond spread over two days, as well as the March 10, 2009 murder of East Bay rap artist Marcus Russell.

Blacknell has pleaded not guilty. His attorney, Diana Garrido, says her client has alibis for his whereabouts during the crimes and that the prosecutor’s case is based on unreliable witnesses and shaky forensic evidence.

In his opening statements Jan. 17, Butts told the jury that fear and a culture that discourages “snitching” within gang circles were constant obstacles to prosecuting cases in Richmond.

Blacknell is accused on going on a September 2009 crime spree with several unknown accomplices to mark the three-year anniversary of the murder of gang member Sean Melson. Police and prosecutors say Blacknell is a member of the East Hill Boys gang. The one-day spree includes shooting two suspected gang rivals on Pullman Avenue in Richmond on the morning of Sept. 13, 2009.

The group next allegedly went to Eighth and Adeline streets in Oakland and fired more than two dozen rounds into a car containing a 30-year-old man and his 10-year-old niece, wounding the man.

The crew then allegedly dumped the van they’d been using early that afternoon after carjacking an 80-year-old man who had been driving his Chevy Malibu to a local park to play checkers.

They next returned to Richmond, allegedly firing more than 50 rounds at two rival gang members at Harbour and Chanslor avenues, wounding one.

Blacknell was traveling in a Nissan Maxima that the group carjacked in Oakland after the final shooting when police in Richmond attempted to pull him over that day. During a foot chase, officers fired shots at Blacknell, and he allegedly pointed a gun at them.
When they captured him on the roof of a building, officers testified they found a gun, a 30-round magazine and a black mask.

Blacknell is accused on going on a September 2009 crime spree with several unknown accomplices to mark the three-year anniversary of the murder of gang member, Sean Melson. The one-day spree includes shooting two suspected gang rivals on Pullman Avenue in Richmond on the morning of Sept. 13, 2009.

The group next allegedly went to Eighth and Adeline streets in Oakland and fired more than two dozen rounds into a car containing a 30-year-old man and his 10-year-old niece, wounding the man.

The crew then allegedly dumped the Odyssey early that afternoon after carjacking an 80-year-old man who had been driving his Chevy Malibu to a local park to play checkers.

They next returned to Richmond, allegedly firing more than 50 rounds at two rival gang members at Harbour and Chanslor avenues, wounding one.

Blacknell was traveling in a Nissan Maxima that the group carjacked in Oakland after the final shooting when police in Richmond attempted to pull him over that day. During a foot chase, officers fired shots at Blacknell, and he allegedly pointed a gun at them.
When they captured him on the roof of a building, police found a gun, a 30-round magazine and a black mask. Blacknell is also accused of shooting and killing Russell as he was driving from a photo shoot on I-580 near the Bayview exit.

Blacknell is also accused of shooting and killing Russell in a separate incident six months earlier., as he was driving from a photo shoot on I-580 near the Bayview exit.

Testimony Tuesday began with a District Attorney inspector describing months of unsuccessful attempts to locate Richmond resident Sharoi Moore – allegedly shot at by Blacknell as he drove with a friend on Harbor Way on Sept. 13, 2009 – who had been subpoenaed to testify. Later, Richmond Police Officer Anthony Diaz also testified about his unsuccessful searches, describing how police scoured neighborhoods and set up surveillance at the funeral of a suspected gang member last month in search of their Moore. Police even offered Moore’s mother, a Central Richmond resident, $400 for help in locating her son.

“She refused our money,” Diaz said.

A warrant remains in effect to bring Moore into court.

Testimony was scheduled to begin with a man and woman whose Nissan Maxima had been carjacked in Oakland on Sept. 13 – the same Maxima police say Blacknell was riding in just before his capture – but they were several hours late.

The 42-year-old Oakland resident who was a passenger in the Nissan Maxima before it was carjacked from in front of a store on 86th Street and International Boulevard took the stand as the only witness thus far to link Blacknell directly with any crime.

The man described how a light-colored Chevrolet Malibu drove into the parking lot and three or four men in black hooded sweatshirts jumped out and pointed guns at he and his friend, robbing them of the contents of the pockets, their watches, and taking their Nissan Maxima.

“He put the gun through the window in my ribs and it was ‘Break yourself,’” the man described.

The man said that one of the carjackers had a lighter complexion than the others and distinctive eyes.

“Do you see the same person seated here today?” Butts asked. “Yes,” the man said, pointing at Blacknell, who was seated at the defense table about 20 feet away.

But under Garrido’s cross-examination , the witness conceded several inconsistencies and inaccuracies in his descriptions of his attacker, at various times and previous testimony at a pre-trial hearing, both of which he attributed to the time that elapsed since the incident.

Under cross-examination, Garrido noted the witness’s prior convictions on drug charges, forgery and petty theft, and said statements the witness made to an investigator suggested that he picked Blacknell’s photo out of a lineup because he wanted to end his questioning by police.

“Do you even remember whether the light-skinned one had a mask on?” Garrido asked.

“I don’t know, I don’t remember. I’m sorry,” the witness said.

Proceedings are set to resume at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

• Pre-trial introduction
• Day 1: Opening statements
• Day 2: Recounting crime spree
• Day 3: Chase, capture
• Day 4: Witness describes shooting

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