OAKLAND — A 23-year-old Antioch man accepted a plea deal and a life sentence for fatally shooting an Oakland resident nearly four years ago.
Davonte Tyson pleaded no contest to second-degree murder in the October 2018 shooting death of 37-year-old Marcel McCarther, court records show. In exchange, he will be sentenced to 15 years to life in September, per the plea agreement.
Tyson was identified as the man who shot Tyson by an eyewitness who testified at his 2019 preliminary hearing, as well as video surveillance showing him on an AC Transit bus shortly before the shooting, according to court records. When he was arrested on Lilac Street in Oakland the day after the shooting, he was holding a shoe box containing Nikes that appeared similar to those worn by the shooter, prosecutors said.
McCarther was shot and killed around 4 p.m. Oct. 9, 2018, outside a liquor store near the intersection of High Street and Congress Avenue, police said. Prosecutors didn’t disclose the potential motive during Tyson’s preliminary hearing.
Police said at the time the two men knew one another.
At the preliminary hearing, the defense argued an eyewitness was unreliable because they testified Tyson looked different in court, without glasses on, but Judge Rhonda Burgess found there was sufficient evidence to move the case forward. Tyson’s no contest plea was entered June 20, three weeks after he signed the plea agreement, court records show.
Source: www.mercurynews.com