Reputed Gang Member Faces New Charges

OAKLAND, CA — A reputed gang member who once was charged with murder for the fatal shooting of an 8-year-old girl in Oakland in 2013 has been charged with two counts of attempted murder for allegedly shooting two men, including a longtime rival, in 2010.

The new charges against Joseph Carroll, 31, are in addition to three counts of murder that were filed against him late last year and early this year for three fatal shootings in Oakland in 2009, 2010 and 2011.

On March 15, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Trina Thompson ordered Carroll to stand trial in that case: the fatal shootings of 18-year-old Nguyen Ngo in the 800 block of 45th Street at about 4:15 p.m. on
April 23, 2009, 24-year-old Nehemiah Lewis in the 800 block of Athens Avenue on June 11, 2010, and 23-year-old Andrew Henderson of Alameda on E Street in Oakland on April 13, 2011.

The cases had gone cold but prosecutors filed the three murder charges against Carroll late last year after police developed new evidence that they believe ties Carroll to the three homicides.

Carroll also faces a special circumstance allegation that he committed multiple murders so he potentially could face the death penalty if he's convicted.

The charges against Carroll that were filed late last month, after his preliminary hearing in the other case, allege that he shot Aaron Shaw and Deandre Ware multiple times in the 110 block of 10th Street in Oakland on May 3, 2010.

Oakland police homicide Detective Jose Barocio wrote in a probable cause statement that Shaw identified Carroll as the person who shot Ware and him.

Shaw told police that he almost died from his gunshot wounds and that Ware and Caroll had an ongoing feud, according to Barocio.

Nehemiah Lewis, who was fatally shot about five weeks after Shaw and Ware were shot, was best friends with Shaw and was with Shaw when he allegedly was shot and killed by Carroll, Barocio said.

Carroll's lawyer, Ernie Castillo, said after Carroll's preliminary hearing in the triple murder case last month that he thinks the prosecution will have a difficult time getting a jury to convict Carroll of committing
the three killings because he believes its case is based on unreliable "snitches and informants."

Carroll and Darnell Williams were charged with murder for the fatal shooting of 8-year-old Alaysha Carradine in the 3400 block of Wilson Avenue in Oakland on July 17, 2013.

Oakland police alleged in probable cause statements that Alaysha's shooting death was an outgrowth of Carroll's rage that his cousin, 26-year-old Jermaine Davis, was fatally shot in the 1800 block of Derby Street in Berkeley at about 6:52 p.m. on July 17, 2013, a little more than three hours before Alaysha was killed.

But at the end of a preliminary hearing in January 2014 a judge dismissed the murder charge against Carroll, saying there was a lack of evidence to prove the prosecution's theory that Alaysha was killed as a result of a conspiracy by Carroll to seek revenge against the man he thought had murdered his cousin.

Williams was sentenced to the death penalty in 2016 after he was convicted of murdering Alaysha as well as murdering 22-year-old Anthony Medearis III in Berkeley in an unrelated shooting about seven weeks later on
Sept. 8, 2013.

In 2015 Carroll pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit assault in connection with several shootings in Oakland in September 2013 and in 2007 Carroll was convicted of a felony charge of evading an officer.

Carroll also was convicted of a federal gun charge. He was released from federal prison last October after completing his sentence but was immediately transferred to an Alameda County jail in connection with the
new murder charges that were filed against him.

— Bay City News; Image via Shutterstock