Three Man Get Life in Prison for Murdering 15-Year-Old Girl

Three young men were sentenced to life in prison today for their roles in the shooting death of a 15-year-old girl in East Oakland in 2012 in what a prosecutor says was an act of revenge in which someone else was the target. Lilron Jones, 20, Marquise Thompson, 25, and Vijay Bhushan, 22, were all convicted of first-degree murder for the fatal shooting of Jubrille Jordan in the 6600 block of Lion Way, near the Lion Creek Crossings apartment complex at about 3:40 p.m. on Dec. 30, 2012.

At least 20 shots were fired in the incident because that’s how many bullet casings were found. The three men were also convicted of attempted murder for the shooting and wounding of a 14-year-old boy who prosecutor Glenn Kim said was the target in the shooting.

Jones and Bhushan were prosecuted together and were convicted on March 2. Thompson was prosecuted separately and was convicted on June 1. Alameda County Superior Court Judge C. Don Clay said Jubrille “was an innocent young girl who had her whole life to live” when she was gunned down because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Peering at a courtroom packed with family members of Jubrille as well as the three young men, Clay said, “I look at the audience and think how sad today is. There’s no rhyme or reason for any of us to be here because this is senseless.” Clay said, “Everyone is losing someone here” because Jubrille is dead and the three men face lengthy prison terms.

Kim said at the trials for the three men that Thompson, Jones and Bhushan had a plan to kill the 14-year-old boy because they thought he had killed their 15-year-old friend, Hadari Askari, five months earlier, on July 10, 2012. The 14-year-old boy was shot in the leg and survived the shooting on Dec. 30, 2012, but Jubrille, who attended Melrose School, was an innocent victim who was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was hit in the head and killed by one of the bullets that were fired in the incident, Kim said.

The prosecutor said Jones, Bhushan and Thompson, who’s also known as Marquise Thomas, were close to Hadari, who wanted to become a firefighter and was in a summer work program with the Oakland Fire Department. He was fatally shot in the 6700 block of Leona Creek Drive at about 8 p.m. on July 10, 2012. No one was arrested or charged for Hadari’s death until March, when Reggie Ray Thomas and Rodney Rederford, both 19, were charged. They entered not guilty pleas in their case on Monday.

Kim said the word on the street was that the 14-year-old boy had killed Hadari but he hadn’t been seen much in public until a friend of Jones, Bhushan and Thompson spotted him at the 69th Avenue Village housing project in East Oakland on Dec. 30, 2012. Jubrille, her sister and several close girlfriends were walking through the 69th Avenue Village on Dec. 30, 2012, on their way to the Coliseum BART station to take a train to go to the Bayfair Center shopping mall in San Leandro to buy clothes, Kim said.

The girls stopped to talk to a boy one of them knew and that boy was with the suspects’ intended target when they approached him and opened fire, Kim said. Authorities said they don’t think the boy who was the target of the shooting was actually involved in Hadari’s death, despite the rumors on the street. Kim said he thinks Jones and Thompson were the suspects who fired shots in the incident. But he said he believes Bhushan is equally guilty because he gave Thompson the gun that he used and the gun that Jones used was later found at Bhushan’s house.

Clay scolded the three men today for trying to take the law into their own hands, saying, “You thought you were the judge, jury and executioner.” Clay said all three men had potential because they are “articulate” and he said Bhushan in particular could have done something with his life because he has a supportive family and was a good student at California State University, Sacramento. But the judge said Bhushan “couldn’t break away from the (criminal) life and it appears that Bhushan was involved in another murder because he told Jones in a tape-recorded phone call after Jubrille was killed, “Welcome to the redrum (murder spelled backwards) club.”

Clay noted that Jones may also have been involved in another murder because he’s charged with murder for the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Elijah Allen at the intersection of 28th and Myrtle streets in Oakland at about 11 a.m. on March 3, 2013, three months after Jubrille was killed.

Jubrille’s sister, Juvonna Jordan, said Jubrille “was a loving and caring person whose smile could light up a whole room.” Jordan said her sister “was my best friend and the other half of my heart” and she’s had to undergo therapy to cope with the anxiety she’s felt since her sister died. Jubrille’s mother, Belinda McLaughlin, said Jubrille’s death “has broken me down” and said she had never suffered from bad health until Jubrille was killed.

Clay sentenced Jones to 120 years to life in state prison, the longest term of the three defendants, because he has the longest criminal record of the three men. Jones was 17 at the time of the shooting but was prosecuted as an adult. Clay sentenced Bhushan to 34 years to life and Thompson to 32 years to life. The judge said Bhushan and Thompson will be eligible for parole at some point many years in the future but Jones will never get out of prison, especially if he’s convicted in the other murder case he faces.

By Bay City News

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