Closing Arguments in Woman's Murder Trail

OAKLAND, CA - The defense lawyer for a woman charged with murder for her role in the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old man in West Oakland four years ago told jurors today there’s reasonable doubt that she’s guilty because many questions about the case remain unanswered.

In his closing argument in the trial of Laquisha Allen, 34, who’s charged in the death of Tommy Lacy III in the 1600 block of 11th Street in West Oakland at about 7:20 p.m. on July 6, 2012, defense attorney Ted Johnson said, “I don’t know what happened out there and you don’t know either.”

Johnson described the evidence in the case as “tenuous” and said, “We don’t know who shot Tommy and we don’t know who the target was.”

Prosecutor Glenn Kim alleges that Allen ordered her son, Douglas Andrews, who was only 15 at the time, and Lacy, who allegedly was one of her many teenage lovers, to shoot Marjon Fuller because she believed Fuller was responsible for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Jah-Kwan Smith in Stockton the previous week.

Kim said Allen and Smith had a sexual relationship and were a couple because she has a tattoo of Smith’s name on her neck but he said Allen also had sexual relationships with Lacy and several other teenagers.

Kim said Allen, who lived in Stockton but had family and friends in West Oakland, rented a car and had Lacy and her son accompany her to West Oakland, where she drove at speeds of up to 85 miles per hour before they spotted Fuller outside a corner store.

He said Allen then ordered the teenagers, who were both armed with guns, to get out of the car and shoot Fuller.

Kim said Lacy and Andrews confronted Fuller but in an exchange of gunfire Lacy was shot and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Although Allen didn’t get out of her rental car and didn’t fire any shots, she’s charged under the provocative act doctrine, which holds that a suspect can be charged with murder if she engages in reckless or dangerous conduct that provokes a victim to shoot in self-defense and kill someone else.

Allen also is charged with attempted murder for the shots that were fired at Fuller. Fuller, who was 18 at the time, wasn’t injured in the shooting but was killed in a separate drive-by shooting at the same corner two years later at 9 a.m. on April 16, 2014, when he was 20.

Kim said it’s never been determined who fired the shot that killed Lacy but he said for the purpose of Allen’s case that doesn’t matter because he believes she bears legal responsibility for Lacy’s death. Andrews, Allen’s son, pleaded guilty in juvenile court to charges stemming from Fuller’s death and testified last week that Allen didn’t have anything to do with the shooting. Johnson said today he believes that Andrews and Lacy fired shots in self-defense after someone came out of a nearby bar and started shooting at them first. Johnson told jurors that if they believe that Andrews and Lacy shot in self-defense they should find Allen not guilty of the charges against her.

But Kim said in his closing argument on Monday that the mother of Smith, Allen’s alleged lover, told police that Allen said to her after Lacy was fatally shot that, “Tommy (Lacy) started shooting and Dougie (Allen’s son) started shooting.” Kim said Allen’s actions led to the fatal shooting of Lacy and “it doesn’t matter who pulled the trigger,” on the gun that fired the bullets that killed Lacy.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberating Allen’s fate on Wednesday after Smith finishes his closing argument and Kim presents his rebuttal argument.

--Bay City News