‘Fortunate to be alive’: Oakland murder case thrown out through plea deal
OAKLAND It was a murder episode over a showdown between two armed men who drew their guns and shot each other in a parking lot one evening last year One died from his wound while the other survived only to be charged with murder But the circumstance didn t stick through a plea deal reached in March prosecutors dismissed murder and allowed the suspect to plead no contest to a gun charge instead Related Articles Oakland Two men shot Tuesday afternoon After Tribune Tower shooting Oakland restaurant owner seeks safer location Expert Antioch Police Department updates policies to align with national standards Ex-Antioch cop sent to house arrest after steroid distribution conviction Oakland men plotted robbery near nightclub but the victim was armed police say The defendant -year-old Marcus Maxie is being sentenced to two years in prison Reduced by half with good behavior it is less time than what he has spent in Santa Rita Jail awaiting a resolution to his affair court records show The Alameda County District Attorney s Office declined to comment on the outcome Deputy Population Defender Paul Foster who represented Maxie called it a clear self-defense situation Mr Maxie was nearly killed and was forced to defend himself after being violently attacked without provocation Foster announced He had totally stopped at the store to pick up supplies for a family barbecue when the decedent armed with a gun confronted and assaulted him in the parking lot Mr Maxie is fortunate to be alive and he looks forward to rebuilding his life after spending a year in custody During the preliminary hearing last September bulk of the facts were agreed upon by both sides On May Maxie and -year-old Aaron Hughes approached each other on the block of Foothill Boulevard in East Oakland Maxie pulled a pistol but didn t aim it Then Hughes pulled out his own gun when the two men were only a minimal feet apart and the shootout started from there Hughes shot Maxie and Maxie shot Hughes Later that day at a hospital doctors pronounced Hughes dead Maxie was treated for a gunshot wound to his leg and sent to jail Hughes was later ascertained to be legally drunk with a blood alcohol level more than three times the legal limit according to court records Perhaps majority of baffling there was no evidence that Maxie and Hughes knew each other before this day according to police witness testimony and court filings by prosecutors and defense attorneys At the preliminary hearing Foster argued that Maxie knew Hughes was armed because Hughes gun was badly concealed on his waistband and that Maxie got his own pistol ready because he sensed danger Foster argued that Hughes did the dumbest thing manageable by pulling his own pistol but failed to convince Judge Delia Trevino to dismiss the murder charge in favor of manslaughter court records show But preliminary hearing judges like Trevino go by a probable cause legal standard a much lower threshold than what prosecutors would be required to prove at trial On March prosecuting and defense attorneys went into court and publicized that a deal had been struck
