Pubdate: Thu, 17 May 2007
Source: Contra Costa Times (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Knight Ridder
Contact:  http://www.contracostatimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/96
Author: Bruce Gerstman
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

'SNITCHING' INCITED SHOTS, MAN TESTIFIES

Richmond: Drug Dealer Was Taking Revenge For Student Telling Other 
Dealers About His Actions, Says Man Facing Charges

A drug dealer who shot and killed two students at  point-blank range 
in 2003 in Richmond did it out of  revenge, testified Kimiko Wilson, 
who is on trial for  the slayings.

"(Uichema Okeigwe) was snitching on him to other drug  dealers that 
he was selling in central Richmond,"  Wilson said.

Wilson, 22, testified Wednesday on his own behalf for  the second day 
in Superior Court in Martinez, saying he  is not guilty of the June 
16 shooting that killed  22-year-old Okeigwe, a student at Diablo 
Valley College, and 16-year-old Erica Young, who attended Mt.  Diablo 
High School in Concord. Sheianna Babcock, 31,  was wounded.

Prosecutors have charged Wilson with two counts of  murder and one 
count of attempted murder.

 From the witness stand, Wilson spoke in an informal  tone, swearing 
more than 60 times in two hours. He  described being at the scene at 
the moment of the  slayings, the real killer's confession and the 
prohibition against helping police solve a crime.

Wilson sold marijuana on the streets and testified that  a drug 
dealer who tries to sell on the turf of another  drug dealer gets in 
big trouble.

That is what 27-year-old Marcus Rauls was doing, and  Okeigwe told 
other drug dealers about it, Wilson  testified.

"One of the main laws of the streets, or whatever the  (expletive) 
you want to call it, is that you don't sell  drugs outside your 
territory," he testified.

Rauls was convicted of murder as a juvenile and had  been 
incarcerated at the California Youth Authority until he was 25, about 
two years before the  Richmond slayings. He was shot dead 10 months 
after the killings that Wilson is charged with.

Wilson described the day of June 16, when he and his  friend, 
Okeigwe, planned to meet Rauls, who regularly  sold marijuana to 
Wilson and Okeigwe at wholesale  prices.

Okeigwe, Babcock and Young drove together from  Babcock's home in 
Concord and picked up Wilson at  Wilson's grandmother's house in Richmond.

They went to the Triangle Court Family Housing Project  parking lot, 
the meeting point Wilson had arranged for  them to meet with Rauls. 
Wilson saw Rauls walk up to  the other side of the car. He started 
getting out to  say hello. Suddenly he heard shots.

Wilson ran. He said he did not know who, if anyone, was shot.

"You don't stop to think about (expletive) like that,"  he testified.

Wilson testified that he learned that night or the next  morning that 
his friend, Okeigwe, was killed. He felt  confused and scared but 
decided to try to return to the  routine of his life -- selling 
marijuana on the street  in front of his grandmother's house.

Rauls approached Wilson two days later and told him  that the police 
wanted Wilson and that he needed to  leave town.

"He said, 'It would be better if you go up north. I got  a place for 
you up there,'" Wilson told jurors.

By then, Wilson said, he had assumed Rauls was the  shooter, and he 
considered himself one of Rauls's  "loose ends" in the killings and 
felt intimidated by  him.

He and Rauls moved to McKinleyville in Humbolt County,  Wilson said.

That's when he said Rauls explained his reasoning  behind the 
shootings. He did not inform police at his  arrest one month later, 
or anyone else, about Rauls for  the next 10 months because that 
would have been  snitching, Wilson told jurors.

Growing up in Richmond, Wilson's friends and family  shared a common 
belief that no situation is appropriate  to call the police with 
information about a crime, he  said.

His mother ingrained the rule in him at a young age,  when he tattled 
on his siblings, he said.

"She'd whup them for doing whatever they was doing," he  testified. 
"Then she'd whup me for telling on them."

On cross-examination, deputy district attorney Harold  Jewett asked 
why he did not call Okeigwe, who he said  was a close friend, to 
check on him after the shooting.

"I was confused," he said. "It's not my business. It's  not something 
I want to get involved in."

Phone records show that after the shooting, Wilson made  five cell 
phone calls in three minutes to the same  number. He also had called 
that number moments before  Okeigwe picked him up.

He said he did not remember whom he called. He said  recalling by 
looking at the phone number is difficult  because many of his 
colleagues purchased temporary cell  phones.

"Think about it," he said. "We're drug dealers."

Testimony continues this afternoon.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman