Lawyer: Punching-death defendant 'not evil'

[Yurt]

Lawyer: Punching-death defendant 'not evil'


Prosecutors had no grounds to file murder charges in the fatal beating of a 59-year-old San Francisco man on a downtown Oakland street, an attorney for one of the defendants said Friday, describing his client as "not an evil person."

"This is not a murder case. This is a case that, in our opinion, has been overcharged," Adanté Pointer, attorney for defendant Lavonte Drummer, 18, said after a brief hearing in an Oakland courtroom.

Pointer said the case could be "something else," but did not elaborate on any potential defense.

Drummer and Dominic Davis, 18, both Oakland residents, have been charged with murder in connection with what authorities called a random, unprovoked attack on Jin Cheng Yu, 27, last week and the subsequent fatal beating of his father, Tian Sheng Yu.

The two Oakland men, both of whom have juvenile arrest records, appeared before Judge Yolanda Gonzalez Rogers in Alameda County Superior Court but did not enter pleas during their second court appearance. They are being held without bail.

Davis' attorney, John McDougall, declined to comment.

Prosecutors say the men were drinking rum, were upset about their lives and were looking for someone to punch shortly before they attacked the Yus on April 16 as father and son were on their way to shop for coins at a jewelry store. Prosecutors based that account on statements they say Drummer and Davis made to police.

Authorities say the son was sucker-punched first as the elder Yu was parking his car on Broadway. When Tian Sheng Yu approached the two men near the Fox Theater on Telegraph Avenue and, in Mandarin, demanded an explanation for the attack, the assailants turned on him, police say.

Drummer told investigators that "he had anger and frustration over his life and planned on hitting someone," police wrote in a statement that outlined grounds for the arrests.

In an interview with KTVU-TV on Friday, Police Chief Anthony Batts said that "to say that they were frustrated with their life is, for me, a bunch of crap. The reality is, I grew up in a very tough neighborhood. That does not give you the right to take a life."

Batts said he planned to meet with community leaders to defuse tensions that have arisen in the wake of Yu's slaying.

Yu was Chinese American and the two defendants are African American. Prosecutors did not file hate-crime charges, saying the men hadn't picked out their victims for racial reasons.


Pointer said of the slaying, "This is not a hate crime. My client has expressed remorse as it relates to this loss of life. He's a young man that has found himself in the middle of a very tragic situation, and he's not an evil person."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...#ixzz0m3Pxb4xA


seriously....WTF

[Canceled2]

What, you aren't buying into the "I am just a poor angry kid" excuse?

[Socrtease]

Lawyer: Punching-death defendant 'not evil'


Prosecutors had no grounds to file murder charges in the fatal beating of a 59-year-old San Francisco man on a downtown Oakland street, an attorney for one of the defendants said Friday, describing his client as "not an evil person."

"This is not a murder case. This is a case that, in our opinion, has been overcharged," Adanté Pointer, attorney for defendant Lavonte Drummer, 18, said after a brief hearing in an Oakland courtroom.

Pointer said the case could be "something else," but did not elaborate on any potential defense.

Drummer and Dominic Davis, 18, both Oakland residents, have been charged with murder in connection with what authorities called a random, unprovoked attack on Jin Cheng Yu, 27, last week and the subsequent fatal beating of his father, Tian Sheng Yu.

The two Oakland men, both of whom have juvenile arrest records, appeared before Judge Yolanda Gonzalez Rogers in Alameda County Superior Court but did not enter pleas during their second court appearance. They are being held without bail.

Davis' attorney, John McDougall, declined to comment.

Prosecutors say the men were drinking rum, were upset about their lives and were looking for someone to punch shortly before they attacked the Yus on April 16 as father and son were on their way to shop for coins at a jewelry store. Prosecutors based that account on statements they say Drummer and Davis made to police.

Authorities say the son was sucker-punched first as the elder Yu was parking his car on Broadway. When Tian Sheng Yu approached the two men near the Fox Theater on Telegraph Avenue and, in Mandarin, demanded an explanation for the attack, the assailants turned on him, police say.

Drummer told investigators that "he had anger and frustration over his life and planned on hitting someone," police wrote in a statement that outlined grounds for the arrests.

In an interview with KTVU-TV on Friday, Police Chief Anthony Batts said that "to say that they were frustrated with their life is, for me, a bunch of crap. The reality is, I grew up in a very tough neighborhood. That does not give you the right to take a life."

Batts said he planned to meet with community leaders to defuse tensions that have arisen in the wake of Yu's slaying.

Yu was Chinese American and the two defendants are African American. Prosecutors did not file hate-crime charges, saying the men hadn't picked out their victims for racial reasons.


Pointer said of the slaying, "This is not a hate crime. My client has expressed remorse as it relates to this loss of life. He's a young man that has found himself in the middle of a very tragic situation, and he's not an evil person."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...#ixzz0m3Pxb4xA


seriously....WTF

was it one punch, multiple, or a beating? If he punched the guy once and he died, then it is manslaughter, if he repeatedly punched him or beat him then it is more serious than manslaughter. It would have to be really severe to be a first degree murder charge.

[Yurt]

was it one punch, multiple, or a beating? If he punched the guy once and he died, then it is manslaughter, if he repeatedly punched him or beat him then it is more serious than manslaughter. It would have to be really severe to be a first degree murder charge.

i say at least second degree

if punching someone is a felony, then use felony murder as well

[Yurt]

What, you aren't buying into the "I am just a poor angry kid" excuse?

makes me sick

[Threedee]

makes me sick

makes me giggle /Grind

[Socrtease]

i say at least second degree

if punching someone is a felony, then use felony murder as well

A punch in almost every jurisdiction is a simple battery, nothing more than a misdemeanor. Here in NM if you did not do it in the presence of an officer they can't even arrest you for it. Only a criminal complaint, and our DA won't prosecute misdemeanors other than Domestic Violence and DWI

[Yurt]

A punch in almost every jurisdiction is a simple battery, nothing more than a misdemeanor. Here in NM if you did not do it in the presence of an officer they can't even arrest you for it. Only a criminal complaint, and our DA won't prosecute misdemeanors other than Domestic Violence and DWI

in cali...assault and battery with bodily harm is a felony

[cawacko]

was it one punch, multiple, or a beating? If he punched the guy once and he died, then it is manslaughter, if he repeatedly punched him or beat him then it is more serious than manslaughter. It would have to be really severe to be a first degree murder charge.

one punch, dude fell and hit his head on the concrete which caused his death

[Socrtease]

one punch, dude fell and hit his head on the concrete which caused his death

Manslaughter plain and simple, the punch it self did not cause the serious bodily harm and no one could believe that one punch would kill someone, and that is the level of knowledge required to get above manslaughter.

[cawacko]

Manslaughter plain and simple, the punch it self did not cause the serious bodily harm and no one could believe that one punch would kill someone, and that is the level of knowledge required to get above manslaughter.

as far as the law is concerned is there a difference between two people who are fighting each other and something like this happens vs. what happened here where the guy was basically jumped?

[Canceled2]

makes me sick

Me too~~~

[Don Quixote]

give them life without parole
...if the facts are as stated

[Don Quixote]

He's only 18 and the murder was not extremely heinous. LWOP would be a barbaric and disgusting sentence, and you should be ashamed of yourself for suggesting it.

perhaps, but what i cannot condone is the statement that they were feeling bad and when out to 'punch someone out because they felt bad' and the hell with the consequences...and they killed someone

what would you suggest as a fitting punishment

[Threedee]

perhaps, but what i cannot condone is the statement that they were feeling bad and when out to 'punch someone out because they felt bad' and the hell with the consequences...and they killed someone

what would you suggest as a fitting punishment

Being Watermark, he would suggest tea and crumpets.