OAKLAND — An Oakland man known around town as “Jesse James” allegedly stabbed a man in front of hotel security cameras in February 2020, then fatally shot the same victim weeks later, crimes that he was linked to by a poem found in his pocket, court records show.
James Mallett, 43, was ordered in late February to stand trial on charges of murdering 40-year-old Antonio Diaz in April 2020, and attempting to murder him in the prior stabbing. At his hearing, Judge Mark McCannon said video surveillance “clearly” depicted Mallett stabbing Diaz numerous times inside the Park Lane Motel on MacArthur Boulevard, and that there was probable cause to believe he was the man who fatally shot Diaz in a homeless camp where Mallett lived, on the 1300 block of 83rd Avenue.
Mallett has pleaded not guilty. A trial date has not been set.
At the preliminary hearing, Oakland police testified that when they arrested Mallett on suspicion of murdering Diaz in April 2020, they found a broken firearm. An evidence technician stuck the barrel and the slide on another firearm frame and test-fired it, and linked it to Diaz’s killing and a nonfatal shooting, he testified.
One thing police didn’t address at the preliminary hearing was why Mallett wasn’t charged with attempting to murder Diaz sooner, despite what McCannon described as convincing evidence of his guilt. That count wasn’t filed until after he’d been arrested on suspicion of murdering Diaz roughly seven weeks after the stabbing.
In addition to the gun, Mallett had a poem in his pocket that referenced killing Diaz and committing suicide-by-cop afterwards, police testified. But the poem also said that Diaz had previously pointed a gun at Mallett, prompting his attorney to question police about a possible self-defense theory. A homicide investigator testified they tried to interview Mallett about that possibility but that he demanded a lawyer.
In addition to the officers, two acquaintances of Mallett and Diaz testified, though both men downplayed prior statements they made to police and refused to identify Mallett as Diaz’s stabber or killer. One of the men was forcibly brought to court after defying a subpoena; Deputy District Attorney Christine Oh asked that Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies be authorized to use “reasonable force” to get him to court against his will.
A man who lived in a tent near Mallett, Dale Moon, claimed he never remembered telling police that Mallett was a bad guy or that he carried a gun. He said his lapse of memory had nothing to do with fear, adding, “The only people I’m afraid of is God. I’m not afraid of him.”
Earlier in the hearing, Oh asked Moon if the homeless camp was a tight-knit community.
“I don’t know about tight-knit, but it was a community,” Moon said.
Mallett is being held without bail at Santa Rita Jail, pending the outcome of the case.
Source: www.mercurynews.com