MARTINEZ — Eight years in the past, Edward Robinson and William Pree had been sentenced to life for homicide, nevertheless it turned out their saga was solely starting.
After a profitable enchantment, bail motions, and with a trial looming on the horizon, each males have taken plea offers for drastically decrease jail phrases than what they initially confronted. The 2 males had been accused of murdering 23-year-old Kartiae Ely in 2015, as a part of a “money block” takeover by a jail gang.
Now, Robinson, 47, and Pree, 43, have each pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter. On Could 6, Robinson obtained a 16-year jail time period, whereas Pree was sentenced to 6 years he has already served. Robinson additionally will get credit score for time he has spent in jail and jail since his arrest in 2015, court docket information present.
Each Pree and Robinson had been convicted of homicide in 2017, based mostly on a prosecution concept that Pree was a Kumi 415 gang “shot caller” who ordered the killing and that Robinson carried it out. Jurors didn’t discover Robinson responsible of gun enhancements, although, a attainable indication that they purchased right into a protection concept {that a} third, uncharged suspect killed Ely.
In 2023, although, an appellate court docket overturned each homicide convictions, discovering that modifications to California legislation, mixed with “instructional error” by the trial decide, warranted a re-trial. The trial decide was none aside from Diana Becton, who had gone on to develop into the Contra Costa District Lawyer within the years since each males had been sentenced.
The DA’s workplace launched a press release saying a re-trial would have been tougher this time round.
“As is often the case when significant time has passed, legal proceedings become more complex. Evidence can be more difficult to present, and the overall strength of the case is diminished,” the assertion says.
Pree and Robinson’s legal professionals declined to remark.
Pree and Robinson had been introduced again to county jail so the case may very well be re-litigated, however Pree didn’t keep lengthy. He was launched from jail in December 2023, after a decide lowered his bail from $1 million to $200,000, information present.
Robinson’s lawyer was planning to argue that one other suspect, who was by no means charged, killed Ely. Earlier than he was shot, Ely allegedly yelled “Bo, I thought we were cool,” an obvious reference to a different one that was current for the murder.
Ely was shot and killed close to some residences on the 1800 block of Cavallo Highway, in Antioch, in September 2015. Prosecutors contended he was lured there and killed, to ship a message to one among Ely’s pals in regards to the Kumi 415 gang’s plans to assert drug turf in that space.
Pree was thought-about to be a high-ranking member of Kumi 415, an offshoot of the Black Guerilla Household jail gang. Three months earlier than Ely was killed, Pree shot and killed Clydedale “Cheese” Hoskin Jr., who had simply killed Pree’s fiancee, Adrian Craig, throughout a theft on the identical block. That taking pictures was dominated self-defense.
Through the 2017 trial, Pree’s lawyer argued that he was unaware of the taking pictures, and was attending a household barbecue a number of blocks away when Ely was killed.
