OAKLAND — As he awaits sentence for killing a person in November 2023, an area resident now faces a brand new homicide case, this time for allegedly killing a person six months earlier, in Emeryville.
James Wheeler, 44, was acquitted of homicide however convicted of voluntary manslaughter final July, within the November 2023 capturing loss of life of Johnny James Johnson Jr. However now prosecutors in Alameda County have charged Wheeler with murdering 34-year-old Dexter Appleby in Could 2023, authorities introduced Tuesday.
Appleby was shot and killed about 20 minutes earlier than midnight on Could 26, 2023, on forty first Avenue and San Pablo Avenue in Emeryville. The case went unsolved for 2 years, then police launched surveillance video of a suspect, prompting an individual who is aware of Wheeler to come back ahead implicating him, authorities mentioned.
Wheeler has not been arrested or charged in Appleby’s loss of life, however authorities say they’re exploring the idea that he shot Appleby throughout an argument. Equally, prosecutors say Wheeler shot and killed Johnson after they bought into an altercation outdoors a Taco Bell on the 6900 block of Bancroft Avenue in Oakland, on Nov. 21, 2023. On the time of his arrest, Wheeler was working as a UPS driver, courtroom data present.
After he was arrested on suspicion of homicide, Wheeler allegedly known as a girl from jail and gave his aspect of the confrontation, saying that Johnson “tried to vehicular manslaughter me or whatever.” His lawyer argued at trial that Wheeler had defended himself throughout the incident.
The protection additionally pointed to posts on Johnson’s Instagram — he had the behavior of posting the identical image with totally different captions every time — that alluded to him difficult folks to violent confrontations. One image of him, with obvious blood smeared over his bald head, mentioned “Let be a blood bath (sic).” One other publish of the identical image had the caption, “I love breaking bones period.”
Wheeler is scheduled to be sentenced in Johnson’s killing on Oct. 17, courtroom data present. He has not but been arraigned on the brand new homicide cost and is being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin with out bail, the place he has been since his arrest on Nov. 28, 2023, in line with jail data.
