Judge resets trial setting for a man charged with 2019 murder
A Solano County Superior Court judge once again has ordered a 23-year-old Fairfield man to return for further proceedings on charges of fatally shooting one person and wounding another at a Fairfield gas station in 2019.
Souljah Devon Corbin, who was scheduled to appear March 22 in Department 7 for a trial setting, a readiness conference, and a motion to dismiss one or more of the charges, will instead return for the same proceedings at 8:30 a.m. May 10 in the Justice Building in Vallejo.
At his jail arraignment in June 2019 in the Justice Center in Fairfield, Corbin pleaded not guilty to the charges, and the case was later transferred to the Vallejo courthouse.
During a brief interview with The Reporter after Corbin’s initial arraignment, Vallejo criminal defense attorney Amy Morton, who represents him, believes the case is one of selfdefense.
During previous proceedings in Department 9 in Fairfield, Corbin also faced a robbery-with-special-circumstances charge and a probation violation, but Morton said that a separate case of charges will be folded into the murder and attempted murder cases. Corbin did not appear in Judge Carlos R. Gutierrez’s courtroom at the time.
The Solano County District Attorney’s Office filed a complaint on June 4, 2019. Besides first-degree murder and attempted murder, other charges include assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury. Deputy District Attorney Julie Underwood was the prosecutor of record at the time.
Corbin remains in Solano County Jail without bail. If convicted at trial, he faces as much as 40 years to life for the murder and attempted murder charges, plus the prospect of additional time for using a firearm and other enhancements. Court records indicate that just before midnight on June 2, officers responded to a report of people fighting and shots being fired at the ARCO station at the corner of North Texas Street and Alaska Avenue. Upon arrival, officers found two gunshot victims, one of whom was later pronounced dead. The other was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries.
A local hospital later notified police of a third potential victim. A man with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, later identified as Corbin, had apparently walked into a local emergency room. After confirming his alleged involvement in the shooting, police arrested him.
The deceased victim was identified as Lavell James, 30, of Fairfield, and the shootings were not a random act of violence, police investigators said.