OAKLAND — Joseph Carroll Jr., the 38-year-old gang leader who slammed his fists and openly wept as a jury convicted him of three murders, has been sentenced to multiple life terms in state prison.
Carroll was convicted last August of murdering Nguyen Ngo, 18, Nehemiah Lewis, 24, and Andrew Henderson Jr., 23. — and wounding several others — in a series of gang-related shootings from 2009 to 2010. Prosecutors painted him as a ruthless gang member who either ordered shootings or personally carried them out, while defense attorneys attacked the case as a house of cards built on the word of lying former gang members with an axe to grind.
Carroll was formally sentenced on Friday to 197 years to life in prison, and an additional 10-year, four month term.
Outgoing District Attorney Pamela Price — having recently conceded she was recalled in the November election — announced the charges in a statement that commended the trial team for working through a tough case and holding Carroll accountable for his “outrageous” behavior.
“Unfortunately, no amount of time will heal the hurt inflicted on the families of the victims,” Price said in a written statement. “The sentence does, however, reflect a need to protect public safety from this type of violence.”
During trial, prosecutors battled alleged attempts at witness intimidation that included people trying to sneak recording devices into court, despite added security measures. Trial attendees were required to go through a metal detector at the door of the courtroom, in addition to the one at the courthouse’s ground-floor entrance.
When Carroll was convicted, he began to cry and blurted out, “Momma I didn’t do it,” as the verdict was being read.
“I didn’t kill these people. I didn’t do it. I did not do it,” Carroll yelled in court. “Why did y’all do this to my life?”
The charges all stemmed from a venomous rivalry between alleged gang members in Berkeley — where Carroll lived — and North Oakland.
The first shooting happened April 23, 2009, when authorities say Carroll went to North Oakland and unloaded an assault-style rifle on men standing along 45th Street. The drive-by shooting left one man, Ngo, dead and another man severely injured.
Slightly more than a year later, on May 3, 2010, authorities claim Carroll ambushed two North Oakland men over concerns that one of them was dating his child’s mother. Investigators later found at least 17 bullet casings at the scene.
The following month, prosecutors suspect Carroll fatally shot Lewis, a man Carroll believed had witnessed the previous killing.
The final shooting came on April 13, 2011, when authorities claim Carroll was the gunman in a drive-by shooting on another car that killed Henderson. Three other people were in the vehicle, though no one else was injured.
Carroll was arrested in 2017 and was ordered to stand trial for the killings a year later.
Before Carroll was sentenced, his lawyers filed a new trial motion, arguing that evidence from a wiretap aimed at Carroll did more to smear him than it did to offer relevant evidence to the jury.
The motion revealed that authorities started the wiretap after another infamous murderer in Alameda County — Darnell Williams Jr., who was sentenced to death in 2017 — shot and killed 8-year-old Alaysha Carradine, while attempting to kill another man. Alaysha was attending a sleepover when someone knocked at the door, then opened fire through it, killing the young girl and wounding others.
Police suspected Carroll ordered the shooting and sought the wiretap to prove it, but ultimately found evidence of Carroll’s involvement in other alleged crimes, according to court records.
Carroll is planning to appeal his conviction. He remains at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin pending transfer to the state prison system.
Originally Published:
Source: www.mercurynews.com