DUBLIN — Months in the past, an Alameda County decide remarked she was “very compelled” by a homicide defendant’s self-defense argument and burdened the “very, very real possibility” a jury would acquit him.
The precise jurors, although, didn’t appear to have as a lot hassle accepting the prosecution’s principle. On July 17, they convicted 35-year-old Shawn Moayer of second diploma homicide with an enhancement for personally discharging a gun. Moayer was additionally convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm however acquitted of creating legal threats and dissuading a witness to the homicide, court docket information present.
Only a few months in the past, Moayer gave the impression to be in a superb place to presumably beat the case. At his preliminary listening to, Choose Amy Sekany — who additionally presided over the trial — superior the homicide cost however emphasised the chance of Moayer’s eventual acquittal.
“I cannot stress enough that this court was very compelled by the defense’s arguments,” Sekany stated on the listening to. “And, again, it would not be a stretch of the imagination to conceive of 12 people from our community finding this to be an act of self-defense.”
Whereas the decide’s critique of the case wasn’t legally binding, such remarks are sometimes seen as an early litmus check of a case that is perhaps an in depth name for a jury.
However prosecutors introduced Moayer to trial anyhow. They didn’t deny that the sufferer, 36-year-old Matthew Beck, threatened Moayer with a knife throughout an Aug. 26, 2024 argument on the 22000 block of Santa Clara Road, at a Hayward house complicated the place each males lived. However Deputy District Lawyer Margaret Watts argued that “Mr. Beck did not advance on Mr. Moayer while making this threat,” and that afterwards, Moayer went into his dwelling, grabbed a gun, and shot Beck from a far sufficient away distance that Beck wasn’t a menace to him.
After the capturing, Moayer fled and was apprehended in Union Metropolis about two weeks later, court docket information present. At trial, Moayer’s argued that the capturing was self-defense and that Beck was the aggressor.
Moayer faces a sentenced of 40 years to life on the homicide and firearm enhancement alone.
The argument began when Beck’s girlfriend advised him she was going to Moayer’s dwelling to take a bathe, in response to court docket information. Moayer was accused of threatening the lady to stop her from testifying after the homicide.
Moayer stays at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin on a no-bail maintain. His sentencing has been set for Sept. 19.
