April 2010 - Felony Verdicts

• On April 26, 2010 Reggie Peters was convicted following a court trial of involuntary manslaughter, a felony, with the use of a gun as well as of the felony of being a felon in possession of a firearm. On December 30, 2007, at 6:30 in the evening Peters fired two shots through the wall of his apartment. The bullets went through the wall and one struck his neighbor, 50 year-old Bobby Jones, in the heart and killed him. Peters will be sentenced on June 18, 2010. He faces up to 14 years, 8 months in State Prison. The Prosecutor was DDA Patrick Moriarty.




• Jon Cary Etingoff was found guilty of three felony counts of child molest after a court trial before Judge Julie Conger. There were three victims on behalf of whom charges could be brought. There were another five victims that were molested as well but any charges on their behalf are barred by the statute of limitations. Four of the uncharged victims testified regarding their molestations by the defendant in support of the charged victims. The evidence showed a repeated pattern of sexual molests perpetrated on boys and teens from 1975 to 2005. Etingoff has been, over the years, a karate instructor, a volunteer coach for Pop-Warner football and a volunteer wrestling coach at Albany High School. Due to the guilty verdicts on multiple victims, the minimum sentence is 15 years to life.
  He will be sentenced on May 24, 2010.
  The Prosecutor was DDA Susan Torrence




• On April 7, 2010, a jury found Richard Lewis guilty of kidnapping for the purpose of extortion, carjacking and torture. The offenses occurred on May 17, 2007 when Lewis and four co-participants pulled over the victim and her mother using a security car resembling an unmarked police vehicle. The car was equipped with emergency lights and a siren. After being pulled over, the victim and her mother were forcibly taken from their car, the victim was handcuffed, a bag was placed over her head and the two women were driven to an abandoned house in East Oakland. Inside the house, the victim was repeatedly beaten and threatened in an effort to obtain from her money, or access to the money of a suspected drug dealer. Lewis and his associates fled the abandoned house when an Oakland Police Officer pulled up in front of the house. The officer heard the sound of breaking glass and the victim's screams, approached the house and rescued the victim. The Defendant is facing a sentence of life in prison, without the possibility of parole. Sentencing is set for June 4, 2010.
  The Prosecutor was DDA Chris Lamiero.
  
  

• On April 7, 2010 a jury convicted defendant Gerardo Merino of felony auto theft and carjacking. On January 13, 2007, the victim started his car and left it running while he went into his adjacent van in a residential neighborhood of Hayward. Returning to the car, he spotted defendant in it, beginning to drive off. The victim got in between the car door and the defendant and tried to pull him out of the car. The defendant backed the car away, hitting victim with the door and running over victim's right foot. Defendant then crashed the car across the street. He then got out of the car and attacked the victim who was able to subdue the defendant until police arrived.




• Defendants Jorge Rodriguez and Shawndra Star Boode were convicted by a jury on April 1, 2010, of two counts of first degree murder. Rodriguez and Boode shot and killed Cathleen Brooks and her husband David Brooks in their home in Hayward, CA on January 17, 2004, during a robbery. Sentencing is scheduled for May 21, 2010. The Prosecutor was DDA William Boselli.

Misdemeanor Verdicts

• On April 7, 2010 a jury found Wilio Gomez Hernandez guilty of inflicting injury upon his live-in girlfriend (domestic violence), a violation of Penal Code section 273.5. The crime took place in Oakland on February 7, 2010 when the defendant punched and kicked the victim in her face, causing injury to her nose. The Prosecutor was DDA Luis Marin.