A state appeals court in San Francisco today upheld the conviction and sentence of 50 years to life of a Richmond man who fatally shot a 15-year-old boy in Oakland in 2007.
Christopher Emory, 22, was convicted in Alameda County Superior Court last year of first-degree murder in the shooting of 15-year-old Anthony Dailey Jr. on June 3, 2007.
Dailey had stolen a car and some clothing from Emory’s best friend, Marcus Williams, several weeks earlier, according to the Court of Appeal ruling.
At the time of the murder, Dailey had spent the night in the living room of an Oakland apartment of Williams’ ex-girlfriend, Rachel Allen, in Oakland.
Allen testified that when Emory and Williams arrived at the apartment on the morning of June 3, Dailey was wearing Williams’ stolen jacket and Dailey and Williams began arguing about the clothing.
She told jurors that Emory, then 20, said nothing, but raised his arm and shot Dailey in the head from less than a foot away.
Emory, who ran out of the apartment, was arrested the next day at a bus stop in Salt Lake City.
Among other arguments, Emory, who is African-American, claimed his trial was unfair because prosecutors excluded four African-American jury candidates from the trial jury.
But a three-judge panel of the appeals court unanimously ruled that the trial judge, Superior Court Judge Trina Thompson-Stanley, correctly concluded that prosecutors had valid reasons unrelated to racial bias for excluding the four jury candidates.
The panel noted that two other African-American jury candidates served as a juror and as an alternate on the jury.
