85 Year Prison Term For Shooting 3 Men

OAKLAND, CA — A man was sentenced Friday to 85 years to life in state prison for wounding three men in a shooting in East Oakland two years ago that prosecutors believe was in retaliation for a fatal shooting six months earlier.

Mykolay McGowen, 24, was convicted of three counts of attempted murder on May 4 for the shooting on Foothill Boulevard near 65th Avenue on April 13, 2015.

Prosecutor Matt Gaidos said during McGowen's trial that he believes McGowen and alleged accomplice Anthony Smith, 27, were trying to avenge the fatal shooting of Smith's younger brother, 15-year-old Fremont
High School sophomore Isaiah Christopher Smith, just before noon on Nov. 29, 2014, in the 5400 block of Trask Street, only five blocks away from the site of the 2015 shooting.

Isaiah Smith was shot as he was walking on the street with a 16-year-old boy and an 18-year-old youth. Gaidos said he believes that McGowen, who he said was the shooter in the 2015 case, and Anthony Smith, the alleged driver, were targeting two brothers because they're associates of Tyrell Coulter, 25, and Savon Mims, 22, who have been charged with murder for Isaiah Smith's death.

Coulter and Mims weren't arrested and charged until August 2016. A judge ruled at a preliminary hearing for them on Thursday that prosecutors produced sufficient evidence to have them stand trial on the murder charge.

They're due back in court on Sept. 7 to have a trial date set.

During McGowen's trial, Gaidos showed jurors surveillance camera footage of the April 2015 shooting which he said shows McGowen getting out of a black SUV and firing 14 rounds from a .45-caliber semi-automatic gun.

Gaidos said some of the shots struck and injured the two brothers but several bullets also struck and injured an auto mechanic who was working on a car at his auto repair shop on Foothill Boulevard.

Gaidos said McGowen got back into the SUV after the shooting and drove off with Smith, but police later figured out that the vehicle belonged to McGowen's mother and they found McGowen's fingerprints on it when they recovered it.

Defense attorney Darryl Stallworth admitted in his closing argument in the case that McGowen's fingerprints were on the SUV but said there's no evidence that they were placed there on the day of the shooting.

Gaidos said that when police searched McGowen's home they found .45-caliber bullets that were the same as the bullets that were used in the shooting and a black sweatshirt that he said McGowen wore during the
shooting.

But Stallworth told jurors, "You have a number of pieces of evidence that don't provide much information" and said there wasn't enough evidence to explain why the shooting took place or prove that McGowen wanted
to kill anyone.

McGowen was convicted of two counts of premeditated attempted murder for shooting the brothers and one count of regular attempted murder for shooting the auto mechanic, as Gaidos said there's no evidence that
McGowen planned to kill the mechanic, who he said was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

McGowen was also convicted of one count of assault with a semi-automatic firearm and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.

Stallworth said after McGowen was sentenced that he thinks McGowen "is a good kid" despite his conviction.
Stallworth said that if McGowen's appeal isn't successful, he hopes that McGowen can get a parole hearing after serving 20 years under a bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2015 that makes people 22 or under
eligible for parole, as McGowen was only 22 at the time of the shooting.

Anthony Smith, who is also charged with three counts of attempted murder, will be prosecuted separately and is due back in court on Sept. 21 to have his trial date set.

— Bay City News; Image via Shutterstock

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