Analysis of shell casings suggests a link between four killings in Oakland and Richmond and many of the 22 felonies for which Joe Blacknell III is on trial, Richmond Police Det. Christopher Llamas testified Thursday. The revelation came after weeks of testimony in the closely-watched case. Blacknell, now 21, is charged with shooting and killing Marcus Russell on March 10, 2009 and wounding four people on September 13 that same year. Blacknell also faces more than a dozen other charges,…
Throughout most of 2009, neighborhood cliques of mostly teens and young adults were locked in a back-and-forth feud, intensified by ambitions for respect and reprisal. Mixed with the hot tempers and youthful indiscretions, social networking sites had become bulletin boards for taunts, and a burgeoning hop-hop video scene on YouTube bristled with boasts and threats. Add to that, the kids had military-grade weapons. “Assault weapons, pistols, [high-capacity] magazines, laser sightings,” said Detective Christopher Llamas. “In 2009, we had 350-plus shootings”…
When he took the helm in early 2006, Richmond Police Chief Chris Magnus looked to impose his geographically centered policing strategy in a department accustomed to mobile crime suppression teams and cleaved with persistent racial division. “Unfortunately our department is greatly segregated,” then-Captain Ed Medina wrote in a memo reviewed by Magnus in 2006. “We are still separated by race (minority officers associations, etc.) which continually drives wedges between groups.” Magnus’s third day of testimony in Contra Costa County Superior…
The burly detective turned up the intensity, sometimes yelling in a bass-heavy bellow, cursing frequently. His partner chipped in some grim facts—she reminded the 18-year-old suspect about the prospects of a lifetime behind bars. And it wasn’t just a tough-talk routine. The detectives feigned that they had evidence—DNA, surveillance and witnesses—solid as the iron bars at San Quentin. But none of it had an effect. Joe Blacknell III never wavered in insisting he was innocent. “I’m not worried about it…
Editor’s Note: The following is a guest column on Richmond social history by George Livingston Jr., a decorated celebrity photographer and the son of longtime political leader George Livingston, who was the first African American elected Richmond mayor. For more of Livingston’s work, visit Livingston Entertainment. _____________ Last summer I talked to Mrs. Deanna Brown Thomas, daughter of music legend James Brown. We spoke of a Grammy Museum exhibit that would be on display in Los Angeles. We talked about…
The Rockets just keep on climbing. Just days after the new American Basketball Association power rankings placed the Richmond Rockets in eighth place nationally, the first-year squad went out and played like a title contender, running the visiting Port City Pirates ragged in a 109-85 win at the Richmond Memorial Auditorium Saturday. The win was the Rockets tenth straight, and runs their record to a Pacific North Conference-best: 15-3. “We had good shot selection, intense defense and we kept our…
The prosecutor let the image linger overhead. The photo’s stark shades revealed a slim teen boy, hat backwards, teeth bared in a sneer. The jury saw in his thin arms an AK-47 assault rifle, right hand on the trigger, left hand braced under the barrel, a long “banana clip” magazine jutting out the bottom. His T-shirt bore a memorial picture of Sean “Shawny Bo” Melson, an alleged gang member who was shot and killed at age 16 in North Richmond…
More than one year after the March 2009 murder of Marcus Russell, the woman who was with him when he was killed identified a suspect. She said the man was in the van from which a fusillade of gunfire was unleashed, killing Russell and wounding her in the leg. Problem is, the man, a well-known alleged south Richmond gang member who goes by the nickname ‘Scooter Doo,’ couldn’t have been in the car that day. He was in jail. “I…
The trauma of at least eight gunshot wounds assured the death of 21-year-old Marcus Russell, a coroner’s examiner testified Tuesday. “It was the totality of all the gunshot wounds put together,” said Dr. Thomas Rogers, forensic pathologist for the Alameda County Coroner’s Office. “A large amount of internal bleeding caused shock” from which Russell never emerged. Detailed testimony and graphic autopsy photos dominated proceedings Tuesday in the trial against Joe Blacknell III, a 21-year-old Richmond resident accused of killing Russell,…
Lt. Cleveland Brown testified that he never heard the Richmond police chief or deputy chief use racial slurs, but that they made remarks that were offensive to African Americans. Former Deputy Chief Lori Ritter “told me to tap dance,” Brown said from the witness stand. “That is racially offensive.” Brown is one of seven high-ranking African American police officials suing Ritter, Police Chief Chris Magnus and the City of Richmond for workplace discrimination. During his third day of testimony, the…
On the night before his death, Marcus Russell’s nerves were uneasy, and a red minivan was lurking curbside a few blocks from his grandmother’s house, his mother testified Monday. But before Faith Russell could see who was driving the red minivan, which she said she saw several times in her neighborhood in the months leading up to her son’s March 2009 death, it sped away. Once, as she drove toward it, the van accelerated up the street, headlights off. A…
The mayor and many of the 50 or so residents who filled the Whittlesey Community Room Friday night said it countless different ways, but it all boiled down to the same thing: 2011 was a great year in Richmond. “I can’t think of a place I’d rather live right now,” said longtime resident Mike Peritz. The year behind and the year ahead were the topics during the open gathering held by Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and touted as a state-of-the-city report…
In the days before he was shot and killed while driving his grandmother’s Nissan Maxima on I-580, Marcus Russell was nervous about simmering neighborhood tensions and a red minivan that seemed to be following him around Richmond, Russell’s friends and family testified in Contra Costa County Court Thursday. “You know your children,” Faith Russell, Marcus’ mother, said from the witness stand. “And it looked like something was bothering him.” The day of testimony wrapped up the third week of proceedings…