MARTINEZ — Established state law tied the hands of Contra Costa County prosecutors and forced them to decline filing a murder charge against a 19-year-old man suspected of killing an Antioch gas station store clerk in a shootout last month, prosecutors said Friday.

At a news conference, Deputy District Attorney Derek Butts and Chief Assistant Deputy District Attorney Simon O’Connell defended and explained the decision to only charge Ronald Jackson Jr. with a count of robbery involving a firearm.

Gas station clerk James Williams Jr., 36, of Antioch, was shot and killed Nov. 28, outside a Chevron in the 2700 block of Contra Loma Boulevard. Williams, prosecutors said, chased Jackson and another suspect out of the store and fired at them at about 2:05 a.m. The alleged robbers were about 30 to 40 yards from the station when Williams began shooting, they said.

The distance from the store and passage of time since the robbery was committed ended “the imminent threat,” essentially taking away the ability to successfully prosecute Jackson on a charge of murder.

It was “not an elective, optional or discretionary decision that we take lightly,” O’Connell said, adding it was “based on established law.”

Williams shot nine times, according to Butts, with one of them hitting Jackson in the leg and leaving him with a “very devastating” injury, Butts said.

“What we have here is an end to the imminent threat to Mr. Williams’ life, in which then he essentially took on the initiative to seek to either apprehend those individuals — for which deadly force came up — or to seek to reclaim that property,” O’Connell said. “(The suspects’) life is valued under the law greater than any claim of property.”

According to O’Connell, Jackson fired at Williams while falling and hit him in the torso.

The entire incident was captured on surveillance videotape, Butts said. He said Williams went into a back room as the two suspects wrapped up their robbery of tobacco and cash. Williams’ girlfriend also was in the store in a backroom and was not injured.

“This isn’t subject to different interpretations. The video is clear,” he said. “(The suspects) are beating feet, we say, running. They’ve achieved a good distance, and are actively getting away when Mr. Williams takes his firearm and runs out after them. . . . There’s no reasonable interpretation of these events that would suggest that Mr. Williams — who had been in the store — was under any sort of a threat from these individuals.”

Prosecutors declined to release the video, citing the investigation into a second robbery suspect who has not been arrested.

O’Connell, echoing a statement issued by District Attorney Diana Becton, said Williams’ family is “understandably devastated,” and that his death will be a factor in asking for a great penalty for Jackson and the other defendant if they’re convicted.

Jackson remained hospitalized Friday, pending a transfer to the county jail. He was also charged with possession of a stolen motorcycle, although the motorcycle was not used in the alleged robbery, according to court records.

Source: www.mercurynews.com