Livermore Man Convicted Of 2015 Murders Sentenced To 80 Years

LIVERMORE, CA — A Livermore man convicted of murdering two men in 2015 was sentenced last week to 80 years in prison, police officials said. James Wear was arrested on a probation violation on March 1, 2015, roughly four and a half hours after two men were fatally shot on Altamont Creek Drive near Winding Stream Drive in Livermore. Wear was convicted of first-degree murder with a special circumstance of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in June of 2017.

On March 1, 2015, Livermore resident Ryan Rossknecht, 22, was pronounced dead at the scene, and Brandon Lowell, a 29-year-old Manteca resident who formerly lived in Livermore, died a short time later at a hospital. At the time of the shooting, Livermore police said Rossknecht and Lowell were killed in an apparent dispute over contraband.

Detective Glen Robbins wrote in a probable cause statement that Wear told police Lowell wanted to buy a gun from Rossknecht but during the transaction the two men got into an argument and he saw Rossknecht shoot Lowell before Lowell managed to wrestle the gun away and shoot Rossknecht.

But Robbins said Wear’s statement “was not consistent” with information police got from his father, Gregory Wear, and evidence that was located at the scene. Wear sped away from the shooting scene when witnesses confronted him and showed up a short time later at his father’s house in Stockton with bloody shoes, according to Robbins.

Wear told his father that he had shot a man in Livermore after the man had shot his friend, Robbins said.

Wear then left his father’s house, and officers who “pinged” his cell phone found him in the area of Bluebell Drive and Sunflower Court in Livermore, according to Robbins. Wear resisted arrest but was apprehended by four officers after a police dog bit him, the detective said.

Bay City News contributed to this report
Photo via courtesy Livermore Police Department