Two ex-felons were sentenced today to life in state prison for their convictions for two counts of first-degree murder for the shooting deaths of two people during a home invasion robbery in East Oakland two years ago.
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Allan Hymer sentenced 24-year-old Joseph Tabron to two terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole and 56-year-old Joseph Castro to life in prison with the possibility of being paroled after serving 50 years.
In December, jurors deliberated for only a day and a half before finding Tabron, Castro and a third ex-convict, 51-year-old Joseph Silva, guilty of first-degree murder for the shooting deaths of Noe Garcia, 28, of Oakland, and 34-year-old Trisha Forde of Union City at a house at 10730 Apricot St., near Blenheim Street, at about 4 a.m. on March 2, 2013.
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In addition to the two murder counts, jurors also convicted Tabron of three special circumstance murder allegations, two for killing Garcia and Forde during a robbery and one for killing Forde during a kidnapping. Silva also faces a potential life term when he’s sentenced next Friday.
A large number of family members and friends of Garcia and Forde packed Hymer’s courtroom for the sentencing hearing today.
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Prosecutor Georgia Santos said during the trial that the three defendants, plus two other men, went to the house on Apricot Street to steal flat-screen televisions and an Oakland A’s bobblehead and Forde and Garcia were killed because they were witnesses to the home invasion robbery.
Santos said the evidence in the case indicates that Tabron fatally shot Garcia but it’s unclear who killed Forde. But she said all three defendants should be convicted of murder under the felony-murder rule, which holds that if a killing occurs during the commission or attempted commission of a felony the persons responsible for the felony can be found guilty of murder.
Silva gave a statement to Oakland police in September 2013 in which he accepted partial responsibility for the crime and implicated Tabron and Castro, who is Tabron’s uncle.
Silva retracted his statement when he testified during the trial for the three defendants. His attorney, John McDougall, said in his closing argument in December that he believes Silva cracked under tough questioning by police officers, citing the testimony of a psychologist who examined Silva and found that he’s “an insecure, passive and dependent individual” and “has high levels of compliance and suggestibility.”
But Santos told jurors that they should believe Silva’s confession to police because it’s supported by evidence in the case. However, defense attorney William DuBois, who represents Tabron, told jurors in his closing argument that he thinks the killings remain “unsolved” and his theory is that Garcia killed Forde out of jealousy and someone else responded by killing Garcia.
DuBois said Tabron, Castro and Silva “are guilty of a number of crimes,” including robbery, burglary, assault with a deadly weapon and grand theft, but not murder because he believes there was no connection between the home invasion robbery and the deaths of Garcia and Forde.
Santos said she believes the two other people who joined the three defendants in staging the home invasion robbery were Tabron’s older brother, 27-year-old Jeffrey Tabron, and a man nicknamed “Taco” who is still at large. Jeffrey Tabron recently pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter and will serve a three-year prison term.
Hymer said today that he was dismissing Castro’s prior convictions “in the interest of justice given the severity of the sentence that’s been imposed and the age of the defendant.”
--Bay City News
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