Trial set for defendant accused of 2019 murder

A January trial has been set for Fairfield man accused of fatally shooting one person and wounding another at a Fairfield gas station in 2019.

Souljah Devon Corbin, 24, who was scheduled to appear Monday in Department 5 for a trial setting, heard Judge Stephanie Grogan Jones schedule it for 9 a.m. Jan. 20 in the Justice Building in Vallejo.

Pretrial proceedings include a trial readiness conference at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 13 and a trial management conference at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 18.

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, said she 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 those 2018 charges will be folded into the murder and attempted murder cases.

The Solano County District Attorney’s Office filed its complaint in the robbery case on Nov. 27, 2018, and a complaint for the murder and attempted murder on June 4, 2019. Besides the primary charges, another includes assault with a deadly weapon causing great bodily injury.

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, plus still more time for the robbery-with-special-circumstances matter.

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 nonlife-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.