Murder convictions overturned for alleged prison gang members in Antioch ‘money block’ takeover
SAN FRANCISCO — A California appeals court has overturned murder convictions against two Bay Area men, six years after they were sentenced to life for killing a 23-year-old man in what the lead detective called a dispute over an Antioch “money block,” court records show.
In a unanimous 3-0 decision, the First District Appellate Court overturned murder convictions for William Pree, 41, and Edward Robinson, 45, in the 2015 shooting death of 23-year-old Kartiae Ely. Appeals court justices ruled that both murder convictions are now invalid in light of SB 1437, a 2019 state law that drastically scaled back California’s felony murder rule, which allowed a person to be convicted of murder for committing a less serious felony that resulted in a homicide.
Pree had been convicted of second degree murder, while Robinson was convicted of first degree, premeditated murder, and gun possession.
The justices ruled that instructions given by the trial judge — Diana Becton, who has since become Contra Costa’s District Attorney — would no longer be allowed, given the change in state law. The instructions gave jurors multiple paths to convict both men, beyond the prosecution’s theory that Pree had ordered the killing and Robinson had carried it out.
The California Attorney General’s office conceded that Pree’s conviction was faulty in light of SB 1437, but argued Robinson should be upheld. State prosecutors have the option to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court, but haven’t yet indicated if they will do so.
Authorities alleged that Pree — who was not present for Ely’s death — was a higher ranking member of Kumi 415, a California prison gang based in the Bay Area, and that Robinson had shot Ely in the back of the head with a pistol. But while jurors convicted Robinson of murder, they didn’t find he personally shot Ely, nor did they convict him of possessing a pistol. He was convicted of possessing an assault rifle, which another witness reportedly told police he saw Robinson putting into the trunk of a car after Ely was shot.
Ely was shot and killed in September 2015, on the 1800 block of Cavallo Road in Antioch. The shooting came amid tensions between Kumi 415 and a local street gang known as Broad Day Killers, or BDK. Just weeks earlier, a BDK associate named Clydesdale “Cheese” Hoskins Jr. and others attempted to rob Pree, his fiancee, and another woman on the very same section of Cavallo Road. During the robbery, Pree’s fiancee was killed and Pree fatally shot Hoskins, but was found to have done so lawfully.
The witnesses against Pree and Robinson included gang members and a man who was originally a suspect in Ely’s killing, but later told the lead detective that he’d witnessed it. Robinson’s defense attorney argued another man nicknamed “Bo” had killed Ely, based on an eyewitness who heard Ely say, “Bo, I thought we were cool,” just moments before he was shot.
Pree’s lawyer, meanwhile, argued that he had planned a family barbecue in the area that day, but had nothing to do with the shooting.