After successfully appealing racist jury selection, three San Francisco men receive lesser sentences for double murder in Antioch

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MARTINEZ — Six years after being virtually sentenced to live out their lives in prison for two murder convictions, three San Francisco men have received far lesser sentences, releasing one outright and giving two others release dates. final release.

Sheldon Silas, 34, Reginald Whitley, 41, and Lamar Michaels, 35, were convicted in 2017 of the murders of Christopher Zinn, 24, and his girlfriend, Brieanna Dow, 21, whose bodies were found were found riddled with bullet holes along Buchanan Road in unincorporated Antioch in October 2012. But last year a California appeals court overturned their convictions, writing that the prosecutor’s “inappropriate” questions to a juror potential were “obviously race-related” and warranted the reversal of the verdicts.

At the end of December, Silas, Whitely and Michaels did not contest the intentional homicide and were convicted. For Michaels, the new deal meant freedom; he was recognized for the time he had already served behind bars and was released from prison the same day. Silas, meanwhile, received 26 years with a 10-year credit, and Whitley received 24 with a five-year credit.

This is a starkly different outcome from their convictions in January 2017, when the three men were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on charges of murder and gang building.

Besides the success of the defendants’ appeal, there were other challenges for prosecutors: the homicides are now 10 years old, it was unclear which of the three fired the fatal shots, and a new law restricting charges Gang-related would have limited evidence of the defendants’ gang membership to go before a jury.

During the 2017 trial, the main witness was brought to court by armed detectives acting as security, due to concerns about possible witness retaliation. A fourth defendant was found guilty at trial of using a false name to visit Whitley in jail and taking a picture of ‘documents’ showing the man to be a police informant, to intimidate the witness .

Silas, Whitley and Michaels were allegedly part of a San Francisco gang known as the Westmob Mob Stars, and prosecutors have alleged that Zinn – a longtime friend of Silas – was blamed for certain assault weapons that had disappeared from a gang reserve. Dow was killed simply to prevent a witness from coming forward, authorities say.

The First District Court of Appeals’ unanimous decision to overturn the convictions cited questioning of then-assistant district attorney Melissa Smith, who left the Contra Costa district attorney’s office in 2020. Judges rectified Smith’s reasoning that the woman had myriad anti-prosecution issues, and reversed Trial Judge Clare Maiers’ ruling against a defense motion that asked her to find that Smith was discriminatory. Presiding Judge Jim Humes noted in the ruling that the office, and “this prosecutor in particular, had in the past exercised peremptory (juror) challenges on the basis of race.

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