video by @abc7news
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price has dismissed two out of the three murder charges against Delonzo Logwood, the accused in the Oakland triple homicide case. This case was passed down from the former administration and was one of the first cases Price had to deal with after assuming office in January.
Logwood, who was charged with three murders at the age of 18, even managed to graduate from high school while in jail. In March, when Judge Mark McKennon rejected a plea bargain that would have reduced Logwood's prison term from 75 years to 15, DA Price tried to get the judge removed from the case. However, a San Luis Obispo County judge ruled that McKennon would stay, stating that the presumption of judicial integrity had not been disproven.
DA Price's prosecution team then filed a motion to drop two of the three murder charges against Logwood. His defense attorney, David Briggs, stated, 'The prosecution acknowledged the problems with the case I have been talking about for years. Two got dismissed. We are looking forward to proving his innocence on the third one. Today was a great victory.' Logwood will no longer face charges for the deaths of Richard Carter, who was killed during an alleged carjacking robbery in 2008, and Zaire Washington, who was set to testify against Logwood's half-brother the same year.
The decision to dismiss the charges was based on the unreliability of a crucial witness. The initial prosecutor on the case, under the former District Attorney of Mali, had reduced the 31-year sentence for attempted murder and manslaughter related to Logwood's case to just 19 years and four months. However, the witness was released from jail in February and has refused to return to testify at the trial. According to his attorney, the witness was willing to be put in jail for contempt of court rather than testify.
Former San Francisco prosecutor Penny Breast expressed her astonishment at the prosecution's handling of the case, stating that they could have used the testimony from the preliminary hearing. She said, 'I don't know who evaluated the transcript and decided this does not carry the day. That is something that is unusual too. Prosecutors use preliminary hearing transcripts all the time in trial.' As for the remaining charge against Logwood, his attorney claims to have a witness who can confirm that the murder-for-hire story is false. Logwood's mother expressed relief at the recent developments in the case, while the prosecutor and DA Price's spokesperson declined to comment.
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