OAKLAND — A 23-year-old man was sentenced to 25 years to life for fatally shooting a 40-year-old father of four during the robbery of another person, court records show.
Donovan Johnson, of Oakland, was sentenced by Judge Rhonda Burgess, who also oversaw the trial where Johnson was convicted of second-degree murder and use of a firearm. According to a transcript filed on May 22 of the sentencing hearing, none of the victim’s family members issued statements; Johnson also did not say anything on his own behalf.
Johnson was convicted of killing Chrystian Valdez Negrete at around 2 a.m. on Aug. 11, 2018, near a night club on the 4400 block of International Boulevard in East Oakland. A 36-year-old man was struck by gunfire but survived. Prosecutors allege that Johnson fired 10 rounds at the intended victim and that a stray bullet hit Valdez Negrete, who was standing down the block.
Johnson was still in Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, awaiting transfer to the state prison system, records showed.
Johnson was arrested in January 2019. Between the murder and his arrest, he allegedly participated in the burglary of an East Bay cannabis dispensary, prosecutors said in court papers. He was also charged with possessing a tiny homemade knife in Santa Rita Jail after his arrest, court records show.
Police said at the time that Johnson was with three others who intended to rob the 36-year-old man. One of the other group members was interviewed about 20 days later, after himself being shot in the leg. He told police Johnson bumped into the man, said, “I should shoot you,” and fired at him, according to a prosecution sentencing memo.
Prosecutors also noted that Johnson’s father and brother also died in separate homicides in 2009 and 2011. Johnson’s lawyer, Brian Hong, noted this and the fact that Johnson was 18 at the time of the crime, saying it wouldn’t be just for him to spend the rest of his life in prison.
“It’s the position of our District Attorney, Ms. (Pamela) Price, that young people … should be held accountable for their actions, but it’s her point of view that it should be done in a way that doesn’t destroy their lives,” Hong said at Johnson’s sentencing hearing. “And I agree with that. And that’s the only comment that I would make.”Source: www.mercurynews.com