Three appellate judges upheld the murder convictions of two former Allan Hancock College basketball players for a shooting during a drug-deal-gone wrong in Santa Maria more than six years ago.
The California Court of Appeal Second Appellate District recently issued the opinion in the case against mastermind Lavell Calvin White, now 28, and shooter Ali Abdul Mohammed, now 25, affirming the conviction.
However, one justice dissented on White’s role in the crime.
The pair were charged in connection with the fatal shooting of Terence Richardson, 23, a passenger in a vehicle parked near the intersection of Jones Street and Bradley Road on Dec. 30, 2014.
While White and Mohammed, both players on the Hancock basketball team at the time, were charged in the case, other athletes testified in the trial as uncharged accomplices in a number of residential and other burglaries in the city.
Defense attorneys noted the uncharged accomplices told multiple stories to law enforcement officers.
In the weeks before the murder, the two defendants decided to rob marijuana dealers, claiming they were “easy to take advantage of,” according to court testimony.
On the night of the fatal robbery, White stood outside the driver’s side of the vehicle with a replica AK-47 BB gun while Mohammed got into the back seat of the vehicle with a loaded 9-mm firearm.
As the dealer tried to drive away during the robbery, Richardson, in the front passenger seat, began punching Mohammed, who fired the weapon.
Richardson died a short time later from a single gunshot wound to his abdomen that pierced an artery, causing fatal blood loss, according to court documents.
In the appeal, defendants’ attorneys challenged several aspects of the case that led to their conviction.
White contended the evidence was insufficient to establish he acted with the “reckless indifference to human life” required for conviction of the felony-murder special circumstances.
He ultimately sought shorter prison time after both defendants were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2018.
Associate Justice Kenneth R. Yegan and Presiding Justice Arthur Gilbert, said that White, credited with being the mastermind, took no steps to minimize the risk, and noted his actions before, during and after the killing.
This included celebrating New Year’s Eve by shooting off the murder weapon, and later discussing committing another armed robbery.
“These actions show he was unfazed by the shooting, and show a willingness to engage in an armed robbery knowing it involved a grave risk of death,” the judges wrote.
However, in a dissenting opinion, Associate Justice Martin Tangeman focused on the fact White did not use a lethal weapon, and could not restrain Mohammed or aid the victim.
“For these reasons, I would reverse the special circumstances finding as to White and remand for resentencing,” Tangeman wrote in the dissenting opinion.
Additionally, Mohammed contended the evidence was insufficient to identify him as the killer.
Mohammed deemed the driver’s identification as unreliable because he expressed uncertainty and had a limited ability to see the shooter.
But appellate justices cited the testimony of an uncharged accomplice, a former Hancock athlete, who saw Mohammed with the handgun before the dealer arrived, and observed him in the back seat wrestling with the passenger.
After the car drove a short distance away, Mohammed jumped out, still had the gun, and admitted he shot someone, justices noted.
The driver’s identification of Mohammed as the shooter provided the required corroboration of the uncharged accomplice’s testimony, justices noted.
“As noted, he corroborated not only the facts of the crime, but the identification of Mohammed. This was sufficient,” the justices wrote.
White and Mohammed also contended being sentenced to state prison for life without the possibility of parole amounted to cruel or unusual punishment, and violated the federal and state constitutions.
They contended their ages — White was 22, Mohammed was 19 — made the sentence disproportionate to the crime “given their young age and the fact the shooting was accidental, based on the jury’s rejection of the allegation that Mohammed intentionally discharged a firearm in the commission of the robbery.”
The appellate ruling cited Santa Maria Superior Court Judge James Voysey’s opinion he was ‘”convinced this was not an intentional killing, but that doesn’t change the law. It doesn’t change the responsibility. … It’s not the exquisitely rare case where disproportionality is the issue.”
“We agree,” the justices noted.
Mohammed was represented during trial by Lori Pedego while White’s trial attorney was Michael Scott.
White is incarcerated at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, while Mohammed is at California State Prison Solano in Vacaville.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.