Man Accused in 1993 Oakland Sizzler Murder Says He was in Los Angeles Then

A 61-year-old man who is charged with murder for the fatal shooting of the manager of a Sizzler Restaurant in Oakland 22 years ago said today that he is innocent because he was in the Los Angeles area at the time. Charles Luckett is charged in the slaying of Anthony Vaughn during an attempted robbery at the Sizzler at 2710 Telegraph Ave. at about 10:45 p.m. on July 16, 1993.

In addition to murder, Luckett is charged with the special circumstance of committing a murder during the course of an attempted robbery, an allegation that could lead to the death penalty if he’s convicted. Taking the witness stand toward the end of his trial in Alameda County Superior Court, Luckett said he left Oakland in 1991 after he served about seven months in jail for a drunk driving conviction and didn’t return until he attended his oldest brother’s funeral in 1995.

Luckett said when he lived in the Los Angeles area he worked as a painter and a security guard, but he admitted that he didn’t file any tax returns during that period and doesn’t have any records of his residence or work. Luckett, dressed in a blue shirt and wearing glasses, said, “I moved around a lot,” and he doesn’t have access to his records because he’s been in custody the past three years.

Oakland police Officer Herbert Webber wrote in a probable cause statement that on the night that Vaughn was killed in 1993, two suspects came into the Sizzler Restaurant, ate a meal and then summoned him to their table. Webber said, “Both suspects announced they were robbing the business and forced the victim into the manager’s office.”

The suspects tried to make Vaughn open the safe but when he didn’t comply, one of the suspects shot him three times, Webber said. Vaughn died of the gunshot wounds. No money was taken from the restaurant. Officers who responded to the shooting recovered a .44-caliber revolver with three spent rounds in a dumpster about a block away from the restaurant and concluded that it might have been the murder weapon, Webber said. Biological evidence recovered from the scene implicated Luckett in the attempted robbery that led to Vaughn’s death, according to Webber.

In addition, Luckett matches the description of one of the suspects, Webber said. The biological evidence is DNA from a cigarette butt that was recovered from the shooting scene. When Luckett was arrested in April 2012 on drug-related charges, authorities matched him to the DNA evidence and charged him in connection with Vaughn’s death. Luckett testified today that he has “no idea” how his DNA wound up on the cigarette butt that was found at the scene. He said he didn’t smoke at the time that Vaughn was killed but said he occasionally would put a cigarette in his mouth and chew on it and then discard it. Before Luckett took the witness stand, Michael Eltzroth testified that he and a friend had just sat down at a table with their food at Sizzler’s the night of July 16, 1993, when “a commotion occurred.”

Eltzroth said, “Everyone was ordered to get on the ground and guns were displayed” and he then heard a shooting. Eltzroth said his memory of what happened in the incident 22 years ago isn’t totally clear but he thinks his statement to police shortly afterward that he initially heard one shot and then heard three more shots is accurate. He said he told police that he heard one of the suspects telling the other, “Hurry up, hurry up, this is taking too long.”

Luckett’s trial won’t resume until April 13, by which time his lawyer, Theodore Berry, hopes to find Luckett’s sister and call her to the witness stand in an attempt to establish that Luckett was in the Los Angeles area at the time that Vaughn was killed. Judge Vernon Nakahara, who’s presiding over the case, said he expects that closing arguments will be presented the following day, on April 14.

By Bay City News

Photo via Shutterstock

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