OAKLAND — Roughly 15 months after a 22-year-old man was jailed on a charge of murder for a shooting on Christmas Eve 2021, prosecutors have changed their tune, saying that surveillance video and evidence at the homicide scene points to self-defense, court records show.
As a result, Emmanuel Gardner-Craft has been allowed to plead no contest to a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and Alameda County prosecutors are dropping the murder count against him. In exchange, Gardner-Craft will serve a two-year probation term, set to begin June 30, when he is formally sentenced. In the meantime, he remains in Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.
Gardner-Craft was charged last year with killing 38-year-old Ricky Bustos on Dec. 24, 2021, based on an eyewitness who said that he and Bustos were drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana on the 1400 block of Lakeshore Avenue when Gardner-Craft aggressively tried to sell them cannabis and then started a fight.
But prosecutors now say video shows Bustos acting as the aggressor, and that a revolver was found next to his bullet-riddled body. A memo by Deputy District Attorney Margaret Roe says Bustos “pulled out (a) revolver and appears to attempt to fire the revolver at Defendant Gardner-Craft,” and that Gardner-Craft then pulled out his own gun and shot Bustos multiple times.
A technician tested Bustos’ revolver and found that the firing pin had struck three different rounds, but for some reason the gun failed to fire, the memo says.
“These findings, coupled with the video evidence of the shooting, would not allow the People to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Defendant Gardner-Craft was not acting in self-defense when he shot and killed Victim Bustos,” Roe wrote.
Gardner-Craft’s lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Miyuki Sakoh, wrote that Bustos blocked Gardner-Craft’s exit shortly before pulling out the revolver.
“As Mr. Gardner-Craft is slowly attempting to pull out of his spot, Mr. Bustos, the decedent, walks to the back of Mr. Gardner-Craft’s car then positions himself behind Mr. Gardner-Craft’s car,” Sakoh wrote, later adding that Gardner-Craft was “clearly acting in self-defense.”
When the case was filed, Bustos’ friend originally told investigators that Bustos was shot while urinating, then two days later offered a different story, explaining he’d thought it over and wanted to tell the truth. This time, he claimed that an aggressive man attempted to sell them marijuana while they were hanging out next to a Goodwill store in Oakland, then followed them to a new location and confronted them again, leading to the shooting, according to court records.
In a search of Bustos’ friends car, which was parked near the shooting, police said they found “a large amount” of marijuana and a revolver on the ground next to the car, authorities said in court records. Gardner-Craft was arrested three months later, in March 2022, and has been in jail ever since.
Source: www.mercurynews.com