Alameda County DA offers 15-year plea for 3 killings
An Alameda County Superior Court judge expressed deep concerns during a hearing Thursday over a proposed plea deal for a reputed West Oakland gang member accused of gunning down three people — including a potential witness to another shooting — when he was 18 years old.
When he originally was charged in those deaths, 31-year-old Delonzo Logwood was eligible for a sentence of death or life without parole. Had he been convicted of three firstdegree murder counts, he would have faced a minimum of 75 years to life.
But the deal set forth by Alameda County prosecutors requires Logwood to plead no contest to a single count of voluntary manslaughter with a gun enhancement in one of the three killings in exchange for the prosecution dropping all the remaining counts.
The deal was set in place by newly elected District Attorney Pamela Price, a longtime civil rights attorney who ran on a platform of justice reform with an eye on compassion toward juvenile defendants. At her swearing-in ceremony last month, Price said she would review cases involving defendants who were younger than 25 at the time of their crime.
Judge Mark McCannon said he would tentatively approve the proposed plea deal for Logwood but made it clear he needed more convincing before his final order. The deal would give Logwood credit for more than seven years he has spent behind bars, paving the way for him to be released from state prison in about eight years.
“I haven't seen any remorse. I've never seen a case pled down like this before,” said McCannon, a former prosecutor who was appointed to the bench in 2013. He added, “I know he was young at the time, but I'm going to have to hear that he's matured and that he has changed his ways.”
Chief among McCannon's “public safety” concerns was an alleged statement Logwood made to another Santa Rita Jail inmate about how he plans “just going bad on everybody” after his release.
The Logwood case is among the first that Price has personally reviewed since she took over last month. Already, the civil rights attorney has taken a dramatic 180-degree shift from her predecessors, including reopening investigations of fatal police shootings and cleaning house by placing six longtime prosecutors on leave.
Deputy District Attorney Stacie Pettigrew, who is prosecuting the case, indicated in court that she was behind the deal. But a few feet away, one of her colleagues later was seen openly weeping.
As recently as last July, Pettigrew argued in court records that it was proper to charge the case in a way that made Logwood eligible for life without parole. She noted in a pretrial motion that all of the charges — save one carjacking count — carried a potential life sentence and argued that jurors would be prejudiced if prosecutors tried Logwood for all three homicides at once. Logwood was charged with murdering Eric Ford, 22; Zaire Washington, 24; and Richard Carter, 30, in separate Oakland shootings in 2008.
“To a rational being, all of the charged murders seem completely senseless, with none of the incidents being particularly more senseless than any other,” Pettigrew wrote in the July 2022 motion.
Neither Pettigrew nor Price, nor Logwood's attorney, nor a member of Ford's family would comment to reporters after court. Logwood's mother, Bonita Wright, gave a brief interview in which she voiced her disapproval for the deal. She had hoped her son would have taken his case to trial and been vindicated, she said.
“He should have never taken this,” Wright said.
Pettigrew said prosecutors have spoken to all three victims' families in compliance with a state law requiring victims to be kept updated on significant legal developments in criminal cases.
Logwood was charged alongside 30-year-old Dijon Holifield with five homicides between the two of them in a span of 45 days in the summer of 2008. Holifield, who was 17 at the time, ultimately was prosecuted in juvenile court, records show.
The original charges included enhancements alleging that the killings were committed to further the interests of the West Oakland-based gang known as Ghost Town and that both men belonged to a subset of Ghost Town known as the P-Team. Prosecutors also connected the pair to a number of other violent crimes, including the nonfatal shooting of a potential witness and a series of armed carjackings.
Washington was gunned down June 30, 2008, near his mother's home on the 8000 block of MacArthur Boulevard. One of two suspects yelled “get him!” before the gunmen shot Washington in the back and buttocks. Three weeks after the day of his death, he'd been scheduled to testify against Logwood's half brother in an unrelated shooting case.
Ford was killed the very next day while in a car at a gas station on 35th Avenue and Quigley Street in Oakland. Authorities called it a murder-for-hire case that Logwood and Holifield both accepted money for and alleged that Logwood shot Ford while Holifield was a lookout man.
Carter was shot and killed July 31, 2008, in the 2000 block of MacArthur Boulevard during an attempted carjacking.
Before adjourning court for the day, McCannon looked directly at Logwood and urged him to be forthcoming with probation officers when they come to interview him for a presentence report, which is standard procedure for all felony plea deals. McCannon said all he knew about Logwood was that he has a child and is accused of multiple murders.
“I don't know anything good yet. This is your opportunity to provide that info to them,” McCannon said. He later added, “I'm going to need to know something before I can sign off on this.”