Man Identifies Best Friend as Shooter in San Leandro Homicide

An Oakland man today identified his best friend as the person who fatally shot another man in front of a crowd of people during a skirmish outside an apartment complex in unincorporated San Leandro four years ago. Daquan Lane, 25, said today in Alameda County Superior Court that he saw 24-year-old Leandre Paige pull a gun from his waistband and fire shots that claimed the life of 26-year-old Darrell Bradford in the 1200 block of Kentwood Lane in the Ashland area of San Leandro on June 14, 2011.

He testified in a red- and white-striped jail uniform because he’s being held in a segregated unit at the Glenn Dyer Jail in Oakland due to fears for his safety. Lane said he had seen Paige, who’s standing trial on a murder charge, with that same gun earlier that day and on previous occasions.

Under cross-examination by Paige’s attorney, Al Wax, Lane said Paige was his best friend, he has known him for 20 years and he regularly hung out with him and other mutual friends at the time of the shooting. Lane said people have been calling him a snitch and agreed when prosecutor Butch Ford asked if was “a little dangerous” for him to testify against Paige.

Alameda County sheriff’s detectives said the fatal shooting of Darrell Bradford was the culmination of a complex series of events at the apartment complex. They began when the girlfriend of 26-year-old Dante Burch of Concord, who was a friend of Paige’s, asked Bradford’s brother about buying some marijuana and the brother said he didn’t have any marijuana to sell.

Detective Patrick Smyth, who testified at Paige’s trial today, wrote in a probable cause statement that Burch and Bradford’s brother then got into an argument and fight. According to Smyth, several witnesses told authorities that Burch said he was going to Oakland to “get his boys” and later returned to the apartment complex with Paige and several other men, including Lane.

Smyth said Burch and Bradford’s brother got into a second fight, but when Darrell Bradford drove up in a car, got out and intervened, Paige pulled out a black gun from his waistband and shot multiple rounds at Darrell Bradford at close range.

Darrell Bradford was taken by ambulance to the Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, where he was pronounced dead, according to Smyth. An autopsy later disclosed that Bradford had been shot three times in his torso, once in his right arm and once in his left leg, he said.

Lane said about 20 people were watching Burch and Bradford’s brother fight and he had a good view of the skirmish because he was only a few feet away. Lane said he didn’t participate in the fight but “I was there to back up Dante in case somebody jumped in.”

Lane said he’d never seen Darrell Bradford before he drove up in his car and intervened in the fight. He said he was concerned for his safety because Bradford got something out of the trunk of his car that might have been a weapon. Burch was also charged with murder in connection with Bradford’s death even though he didn’t fire any shots because investigators believe his actions and words set off the chain of events that led to the death.

Burch was scheduled to stand trial with Paige but earlier this week he pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and agreed to testify against Paige. Ford said if a judge determines after the trial that Paige’s testimony was true his conviction will be reduced to voluntary manslaughter and he will be sentenced to 9 years in state prison. Paige is also charged with murder and the special circumstance of committing a murder during the course of a robbery for the shooting death of 35-year-old Eric Lamont Franklin in the 700 block of Eagle Avenue in Alameda on Sept. 11, 2010.

He faces a separate trial on that charge sometime next year. Lane was also charged in connection with Franklin’s death but on Oct. 15 he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for agreeing to testify against Paige in both of his trials, although the two shooting incidents are unrelated.

As part of Lane’s plea bargain, prosecutors dismissed a gun charge that could have added 25 years to his sentence if he’d been convicted as well as the special circumstance of committing a murder during the course of a robbery, which could have resulted in a sentence of life in prison without parole.

If judges conclude that Lane testifies truthfully at both of Paige’s trials, his murder conviction will be reduced to manslaughter and he will face a maximum term of six years in state prison. Under questioning by Ford today, Lane said he entered a plea in connection with Franklin’s death because “I was not ready to go down on that.” Lane said he knows that if doesn’t tell the truth in both of Paige’s trials, “I will get life” in state prison.

Paige had been at large since the 2010 shooting but was arrested at the Arden Fair Mall in Sacramento on March 2014 for allegedly being a passenger in a stolen rental car, according to a probable cause statement by Alameda County Sheriff’s Sgt. Ricardo Gonzales.

Sacramento police later discovered that Paige was wanted on a murder warrant in Alameda County and extradited him to that county. Paige’s trial will resume next week.

By Bay City News

Photo via Shutterstock