Isaiah Thomas shooter says it was self-defense
on October 3, 2012
A 30-year-old Richmond man pleaded not guilty to murder charges for a shooting in mid-September at a hearing Tuesday in the Richmond Superior Court.
Jafari Sargent turned himself in to the Richmond police on Sept. 18, a week after the shooting death of Isaiah Thomas. Eyewitnesses said the shooting resulted from an escalating argument between Thomas and Sargent, who were cousins.
Sargent’s attorney, Colin Cooper, said that the victim provoked Sargent.
“It wouldn’t have happened had he not been put in the position of self-defense,” Cooper said.
Cooper also asked the court to lower Sargent’s bail to $50,000. The motion was denied, and Judge Patricia M. Scanlon kept Sargent’s bail at $1 million.
Cooper said that his client’s family and friends wrote a series of letters about Sargent’s good character to present to the judge. Sargent does not have a prior record.
“Jafari was a good kid,” said Jackie Taylor, Sargent’s aunt, who watched the hearing.
3 Comments
Richmond Confidential welcomes comments from our readers, but we ask users to keep all discussion civil and on-topic. Comments post automatically without review from our staff, but we reserve the right to delete material that is libelous, a personal attack, or spam. We request that commenters consistently use the same login name. Comments from the same user posted under multiple aliases may be deleted. Richmond Confidential assumes no liability for comments posted to the site and no endorsement is implied; commenters are solely responsible for their own content.
Richmond Confidential
Richmond Confidential is an online news service produced by the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism for, and about, the people of Richmond, California. Our goal is to produce professional and engaging journalism that is useful for the citizens of the city.
Please send news tips to richconstaff@gmail.com.
i can honestly say that i do not && will not believe this Isaiah Thomas was a good person all he way around he was loving & giving and a wonderful father..
isiah Thomas was also a very good person and the father of my 7 year old daughter she will never be able to call her dad and talk to him ever again in life he didn’t deserve what happened to him the whole situation with blue out of proportion and did not have to happen like that black on black crime with your family member it’s not right and we will never be able to bring him back he had a long journey ahead of him and he said he was in title to live out his dreams and wishes rest easy
there should be no reason you should be killed over a heated argument with a family member. Theres’s no excuse for why he done this to his cousin isiah. But like the rest of the ” killers ” he need not to be on the streets. keish keep your head up, more blessing to OUR family!