Berkeley Shootout Lands 2 Men In Prison

BERKELEY, CA — Two Oakland men were sentenced to state prison on Tuesday for an incident near a liquor store in Berkeley in May in which they fired multiple shots at each other but no one was injured.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Andrew Steckler sentenced Justin Lofton, 22, to 9 years in state prison and Jamel Wilcox, 20, to 8 years for the shooting near the Stanford Market liquor store near the corner of 62nd and King streets at about 6:40 p.m. on May 1.

The Alameda County District Attorney's Office charged Lofton and Wilcox with attempted murder for the shooting but at a hearing on Nov. 15 it agreed to deals in which they pleaded no contest to the lesser charge of assault with a semi-automatic weapon.

Lofton's attorney Daniel Duvernay wrote in a letter to the court that Lofton and his girlfriend Isabella Saturn, 22, of Oakland, were in a car in the area of 62nd and King streets when Lofton saw Wilcox and Deandre Bess, 23, of Oakland, in a vehicle up the street and words were exchanged.

Duvernay said Lofton and Saturn attempted to leave the area but Wilcox and Bess advanced toward them and Wilcox was holding a gun.

Duvernay said Lofton fired one shot in Wilcox's direction and the two men then fired multiple gunshots at each other but no one was injured.

Berkeley police said investigators recovered multiple bullet casings from the scene and the car in which Wilcox and Bess were in was found with shattered windows and a bullet hole in the roof.
Bess was charged with being an accessory after the fact to attempted murder for allegedly helping Wilcox flee the scene of the shooting but at a hearing on Sept. 27 Alameda County Superior Court Judge Kevin Murphy granted a motion by Bess's attorney William Cole to dismiss that charge.

Cole wrote in his motion that the evidence at a preliminary hearing for the four suspects in the case failed to establish that Bess, who was convicted in 2016 of carrying a concealed firearm in a car, knew that Wilcox had committed a crime and that he helped Wilcox flee.

Saturn pleaded no contest on Oct. 7 to being an accessory after the fact for helping Lofton flee and was placed on 3 years' probation.

In his letter to the court, Duvernay wrote, "Despite the serious nature of the incident, Mr. Lofton is a 22-year-old man who has plenty of potential" and attached multiple letters attesting to Lofton's good character.

Former Berkeley and Novato police officer Reginald Lyles wrote that the shooting "is a terrible thing and it is in opposition to Justin's character."

Lyles said he's known Lofton, who was on probation at the time of the shooting for a 2017 felony conviction for carrying a concealed firearm in a car, for all of his life and his family for 40 years and said they are "a great family with a God-centered ethos."

He said, "The Loftons are a leading family in our North Oakland/South Berkeley community for more than 60 years."

On Oct. 29, only a month after the accessory charge against him was dismissed, Bess was arrested in Albany for an incident in which police said he punched his girlfriend more than 20 times and choked her to the point to which she thought she would lose consciousness.

Albany police Officer Carlos Ordaz wrote in a probable cause statement that when he searched Bess he found a tool that's commonly used by auto burglars "to effortlessly smash car windows."

On Nov. 22 Bess pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor battery charge, placed on 3 years' probation and referred to domestic violence counseling.

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