MARTINEZ — After six months of testimony, and deliberations that spanned more than a month, a Contra Costa jury tasked with deciding the fates of three men charged in the county’s largest recent gang prosecution has finally come to a decision.
Sort of.
On Wednesday, jurors announced they had convicted two of three defendants on a host of charges, including two murders, but were hopelessly deadlocked on remaining counts. With the dust settled, one of the three defendants’ charges remain up in the air, while the other two are facing life sentences set to be imposed later this year.
Marrico Williams, 24, Torion “Goo” Young, 23, were convicted of murdering 26-year-old Melvin James, and 30-year-old Maxim Biswas, as well as multiple counts of attempted murder, assault, and various robberies. Jurors couldn’t reach a verdict in the killing of 18-year-old Otilio ‘Nico’ Martinez.
Meanwhile, 26-year-old Cardell “Bussem” Waters, was convicted only of a gun charge he’s likely already served time for while in jail awaiting trial. The jury hung on the remaining charges, which included all three murders as well as more than a dozen other shootings. Waters’ attorney didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Williams, Young, and Waters were charged as part of a massive federal and state investigation into the North Richmond gang known as the Swerve Team, which centered on dozens of 2016 shootings, including the three homicides. The gang was also linked to robbery and shooting of Orinda school board member Carol Brown and attempted killing of Lamonta “Tay Way” Butcher, a prominent Bay Area rapper who escaped injury in that incident but was gunned down last year, allegedly by another Richmond gang.
In 2017, eight alleged Swerve Team members were indicted on nearly 40 counts related to shootings, robberies, and burglaries around the Bay Area but mostly in Contra Costa. Five accepted plea deals and prison terms, while Waters, Williams and Young took their cases to trial.
The Swerve Team developed organically in North Richmond, as an offshoot of an older gang known as the Project Trojans. Its members originally called themselves “Trojans in Training.” The name Swerve Team was formulated from the saying “Swerve for Erv,” a tribute to their friend Ervin Colley Jr., who was shot and killed in 2011. Two of the defendants testified in this trial that the Swerve Team isn’t a gang, but a mindset that comes with growing up in North Richmond.
The prosecutor, deputy district attorney Chad Mahalich, argued to jurors that the same guns were used in nearly all the crimes, which he said proved that the Swerve Team was behind all the shootings. He said there were two simultaneous conspiracies hatched by the gang in 2016: to make money for the gang through property crimes, and to eliminate rivals and perceived rivals.
Defense attorneys for the three men argued that Mahalich was using misinterpreted evidence of gang membership in place of real physical evidence tying the defendants to the crimes.
Because no verdict was reached in Waters’ case, it is up to the District Attorney to decide whether to retry him, drop the charges, or seek a plea agreement. Williams and Young, meanwhile, are virtually guaranteed to receive a life sentence.
Source: www.mercurynews.com