OAKLAND — After just a day of deliberations, an Alameda County jury convicted a Fairfield man of murder in a July 2021 shooting where the victim was shot six times, court records show.
LaTrail White, 28, was convicted of murdering Travis Ward, along with enhancements for use of a firearm. He faces 50 years to life in prison and is set to be sentenced on October 13, according to prosecutors.
The verdict was reached Sept. 14, just a day after White’s two-week trial ended. Police say GPS records and a distinctive-looking Mercedes linked White to the crime. His attorney argued that was speculative and that White was innocent.
Ward was shot and killed around 9 a.m. on July 24, 2021, in the 1600 block of Foothill Boulevard. Police say a Mercedes Benz pulled up next to him and shot him in the chest, buttocks and hip.
Two weeks later, Contra Costa Sheriff’s deputies pulled over White at the Gilman Street offramp of Interstate 80 in Berkeley, in a similar-looking Mercedes with a missing emblem. They also found an AR-10-style rifle and arrested him on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm, court records show.
“LaTrail is extremely disappointed in the verdict. His fight against these charges will continue at the appellate level,” White’s attorney, Ernie Castillo, said in an email to this newspaper.
LaTrail White is the son of Apondo White Sr., a reputed East Bay crack cocaine kingpin who was shot and killed in Oakland in 1994 in a still-unsolved homicide.
Source: www.mercurynews.com