Safety
Over the last week and a half Richmond has seen a spike in homicides, adding three more killings to a relatively quiet year. Andre Cross, 34, of Fairfield stepped outside of a home on the 2800 block of McBryde Ave. around 10:30 p.m. to make a phone call and was shot multiple times by someone waiting outside, said Richmond police spokeswoman Lieutenant Bisa French. “It was not random,” said French. “We believe he was an intended target. There was a…
When you think of a jail, what comes to mind? Bars. A cell without windows. Agitated prisoners. Maybe I watch too much TV. But when you go to the West County Detention Facility in Richmond, be prepared for something different. This is a model jail where inmates can get a high school diploma or learn a trade. It’s also overcrowded, and its operations are threatened. “So before you go outside to the main part of the jail, I would like…
The trial for a 2009 double homicide in a Richmond restaurant opened Wednesday in Martinez with District Attorney Aron DeFerrari describing a brutal execution motivated by rivalry between Norteño and Sureño gang members, and attorneys representing the defendants describing their clients as having been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Steven Miranda and Ignacio Ruiz are charged with two counts of murder plus conspiracy to commit murder and gang offenses for their roles in the shooting of Alvaro…
Nathan Burris, 49, was sentenced to death Tuesday in Contra Costa County Superior Court in Martinez for the double murder of Deborah Ann Ross, 51, and Ersie “Chuckie” Everette Jr., 58. For the families of the victims, the sentence brought to an end weeks of listening to taunts from the man who killed their loved ones in the 2009 shooting on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Burris and Ross had been living together in Richmond prior to the slaying. Ross’s family…
Richmond has been picked over by thieves. A stump of a pipe, the tops of concrete floor boxes pried up from the sidewalk, a lonely hinge hanging from a roof. These remains, which RPD Captain Mark Gagan easily spots throughout the city, are evidence of scrap metal theft that has plagued the city for years. It’s likely that a thief took the bronze pipe, the copper wires in the floor box, and the aluminum gutter held up by the hinge….
Whether Nathan Burris, who shot and killed Deborah Ann Ross and Ersie Everette Jr. at the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge toll plaza in 2009, will get the death penalty or life in prison is now in the hands of a jury. The same jury last week convicted Burris of two counts of first degree murder, with the special circumstance of lying in wait, making him eligible for Death Row. Senior Deputy District Attorney Harold Jewett delivered a closing statement for the…
Convicted murderer Nathan Burris admitted to jurors Wednesday during his penalty trial that he was also responsible for a string of armed robberies at Walgreens stores in San Francisco in 1994 and 1995. Last week Burris was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder for the slaying of his ex-girlfriend, Deborah Ann Ross and her friend, Ersie Everette Jr. on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge in 2009. The jury also found him guilty of the special circumstance of lying in wait,…
They met in church, at Acts Full Gospel in Oakland. She was 51 years old, a cat-lover and toll-taker on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge who was trying to get out of bad relationship. He was 58 years old, an ex-Marine who drove a bus for Golden Gate Transit. He was a guy who kept everything in its place, his car and briefcase neat. He was a deacon, or “servant” at Acts. Both of them grew up in Oakland, living just…
Nathan Burris, convicted of murder, spent more time defending himself in court today—during the sentencing portion of his trial—than he did during the guilt portion. Wednesday, Burris was found guilty of two counts of murder in the first degree with the special circumstance of lying in wait, making him eligible for the death penalty and sending him into this sentencing trial immediately. Throughout the guilt portion of the trial, Burris made it clear to jurors that he did it—telling them…