OAKLAND — An Alameda County jury acquitted a man of first degree murder in the Jan. 1, 2023 killing of a man outside a local smoke shop, but jurors couldn’t reach a verdict on the remaining counts, including second degree murder and manslaughter.
Jurors nearly reached a verdict, voting 11-1 on the murder charge and 10-1, with one abstention, on a voluntary manslaughter count, according to a note to the judge that doesn’t say which way they were leaning. The defendant, Harry Black, 26, testified in his trial that he believed the victim’s friend was attempting to grab his gun and shoot him with it after a confrontation that could have been solved with an apology.
The shooting, captured on video, occurred on the 6900 block of International Boulevard in East Oakland. Black accused 55-year-old Roger Johnson, of Hayward, of stepping on his shoe and showed Johnson the butt of an AR-style weapon he had at his waistband, which the defense said was meant to deter Johnson from escalating it into a fight. Instead, Johnson attempted to grab the gun and Black allegedly shot at Johnson during the fracas, killing Johnson’s friend, 55-year-old James Stephens, according to court records.
Coincidentally, Johnson himself once faced a murder charge in Alameda County and prosecutors even weighed death penalty charges against him. He was charged in 2002 with being the getaway driver for two gunmen who killed a Brinks armored car driver, Dena Monique Daniels, during a holdup that year in Berkeley. Johnson later accepted a manslaughter conviction as part of a plea deal, court records show.
Johnson was shot in the leg during the conflict but survived. Black was initially charged with attempting to murder him but a judge reduced that charge to assault after the preliminary hearing.
Johnson testified against Black, stating at the November 2024 preliminary hearing that he grabbed at the gun, “‘case (Black) was pulling it out.” He also admitted that after Black killed Stephens and shot him in the leg, he didn’t immediately go to the hospital. Instead, he went to his car, retrieved his own weapon, and drove around to “look for the person I had an altercation with.”
A prosecutor asked him why.
“He just shot my friend and shot me. Why not?” Johnson replied.
Black wasn’t allowed to have a gun due to a second degree robbery conviction from when he was 17, and pleaded no contest before trial to being a felon in possession of a firearm, court records show. Police said at the time of his arrest that they found pictures of Black holding a gun that looked similar to the suspected murder weapon on his Instagram account, which had the phrase “trained to kill” in his bio.
The partial verdict doesn’t change Black’s custodial status in the short term — he remains at Santa Rita Jail, held without bail, while prosecutors and his defense attorney, Annie Beles, will either prepare for a second trial or negotiate a plea deal. He won’t be sentenced for the gun charge until after his remaining charges are resolved.
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