2012 Homicide Victim Implicated in Murder

Oakland police have implicated a 2012 homicide victim in the fatal shooting of a transgender woman in downtown Oakland six weeks earlier, police said Thursday.

According to police, Malique Parrott, 26, was responsible for the shooting death of 37-year-old Brandy Martell, who was shot and killed in a car in the 400 block of 13th Street at about 5 a.m. on April 29, 2012.

Parrott, 26, was himself killed in the 2200 block of Foothill Boulevard at about 10:50 p.m. on June 10, 2012.

Martell had worked at the Tri-City Health Center in Fremont as a peer advocate for TransVision, a program that provides services for transgender people, until she was laid off because of funding cuts in 2011. Since her death, the center has received a five-year federal grant to run “The Brandy Martell Project,” an outreach program for transgender women of color providing legal, educational, housing, employment and health care services.

An Oakland man, Derren Stevenson, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter for shooting Parrott and is expected to be sentenced to six to 10 years in prison on Dec. 18. Stevenson argued during a preliminary hearing in 2012 that he shot Parrott in self-defense after the two got into an fight at a barbecue and Parrott tried to break into his house, threatening to kill him and his family.

His defense attorney, William DuBois, said that Stevenson was aware Parrott had killed Martell, another reason he feared for his life.

He and his girlfriend, Briana Carroll, were both charged with Parrott’s murder but a judge found in a preliminary hearing that there was insufficient evidence for Carroll to stand trial for the crime.

Stevenson testified during the hearing. Stevenson said he had known Parrott, the father of his cousin’s child, for many years. But he was wary of him because Parrott had a reputation for violence and claimed he had murdered several people.

Parrott was himself wounded in a shooting that killed his brother in 2007, and Stevenson said he bragged about it to seem tough.

Police have not elaborated on how they concluded Parrott killed Martell or his suspected motive for doing so. A spokesperson for the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office was not immediately available to say whether Parrott would be charged with the crime posthumously.

--Bay City News