Oakland’s trial for contempt of the court, duel theories and lock jurors until he reached his abrupt conclusion

Oakland – Day after day, jury members consulted the judge on the law, accused one of their instructions and expressed that they simply could not agree on whether an Oakland man was guilty of murder, homicide or innocent completely.

In the end, they never had to decide. On February 7, as the jury’s deliberations would enter the third week, the prosecutors and defenders took the carpet out of the whole process and resolved the case themselves. The jurors were thanked for their time and excused himself, he was forever to wonder if they would have reached a conclusion if they were given enough time.

For the defendant, Bomani Hairson-Bassette, this abrupt result means a next 10-year prison mandate. Hairson-Bassette was accused of murdering Charles Wright, 36, during what prosecutors called an attempted theft of two drug traffickers, but that the defense said it was simply Hairson-Bassette responding to a deadly threat, pointing out that he was injured during the shooting.

Hairson-Bassette ended up supplicating that there was no contest to voluntary homicide and an improvement of weapons in exchange for a sentence of 10 years. It is scheduled to be formally sent to the prison on March 11, as shown in the judicial records.

The trial was leaked in controversy before the jury members even heard a word. In prior motions to the trial, Hairson-Bassette accused an Oakland policeman, an officer who had been investigated for an illegal pot growing and arrested under suspicion of domestic violence last year, of making an illegal search during the investigation.

Once the evidence was launched, things turned when a key ocular witness, Antoine “Fuzzy” Ford, 40, took the position and refused to testify. Judge Mark McCannon kept Ford in contempt of the Court and ordered him to return to the court room twice, but it was in vain.

It was said that Ford witnessed everything; Prosecutors argued that Hairson-Bassette tried to steal him and Wright while selling drugs on September 24, 2022, in the 900 block of Brockhurst street in West Oakland. They said Ford returned the fire, shot Hairson-Bassette, and then took their friend to the hospital, where Wright was declared dead. Ford was later sentenced to the federal prison for possessing a firearm as a criminal, despite his family’s contentions that an Oakland detective called him a “hero” that day.

However, the defense argued that “there was no evidence” to support the theory of theft, on the other hand, arguing that the evidence showed that Wright and Hairson-Bassette struggled for a weapon, that Hairson-Bassette was shot in the hand during this fight, and that Ford was armed and ready with his own gun and opened fire, he shot Fire time.

Without Ford’s perspective, jury members stayed with shooting vigilance images and duel theories of how he went down. They seemed to be difficult to make a unanimous decision, writing several letters to the judge who expressed his disagreements and raised questions. The deliberations began on January 23.

One of those letter asked how to implement an instruction that asked them to consider what an “average disposition” would have done in the situation of Hairson-Bassette. The jury members were curious if that meant an “average” person from California, or the neighborhood of West Oakland, where everything took place.

Other letters asked about the law in regards to self -defense and imperfect homicide. Another accused a jury of using his “own experience” instead of jury’s instructions to reach conclusions. At one point, a jury was excused by the disease and replaced by an alternative, and another jury of the time indicated that he agreed that Hairson-Bassette was guilty of possession of weapons, not guilty of first degree murder, but that they were “dead” for positions of homicide and second degree murder, they show the judicial records.

For February 7, the conclusion had come. At 10 am that day, the judge surveyed the jurors and determined that they could not decide. Declared a break, giving the accused the opportunity to talk to his lawyer at 10:15 am

Only 75 minutes later, everything had ended. Hairson-Bassette entered his non-answering plea, after which the jurors were brought to the court for the last time, they thanked their service and sent on their way.

Originally published: February 26, 2025 at 1:46 PM PST