Ray Jacobs, a hit singer for Justin Bieber and DJ Caledo, had just left West Dams Bar when the silver Chevrolet Impala and White Mercedes-Benz SUV pulled together.
A flash of muzzle erupted through the open window of a car, Los Angeles Police Department officials testified at a hearing last month.
Jacobs, 31, who played under the name Aug. 8, was murdered on Aug. 26, 2023, claiming that the prosecutor was a case of false identity.
Prosecutors argued at the hearing that rival Bloods gang Jacobs believed Jacobs was associated with black plants – members of the Harlem Crips of the 30s believed Jacobs was associated with black rocks.
Jacobs was not affiliated with the gang, but prosecutors said he was wearing a baseball cap until he was red.
The prosecution’s theory of why Jacobs was targeted is a throwback to a more violent era. Los Angeles, particularly the West Adams area, where Jacobs was killed, is a much safer place than in the 1990s, with the city seeing more than 1,000 murders a year.
Indiscriminate shootings are less common as modern gang beefs start out as spats on social media and often get blown away by targeted violence.
The lawyer representing the alleged murderer argued that there was no evidence that there was only speculation about the hat’s colour to suggest that Jacobs was mistaken for a gang member.
But in prosecutor’s narration, Jacobs’s case shows that it has not changed the fact that a young black man could still be killed because he was wearing the wrong colour in the wrong neighborhood.
Growing up in Long Beach and Lynwood, Jacobs discovered in 2015 that he co-written “I’m The One” with Bieber and Khaled.
Jacobs, an early member of the 88rising Music Collective, released his debut solo EP “Father” in 2018, The Times reported. He later signed with Def Jam recordings, which will produce the 2022 LP “Seasick.” This included collaborations with Jhené Aiko, Schoolboy Q and Joji.
In a statement after his death, Jacobs’ record label called him “a brilliant songwriter, skilled musician, singular artist.”
Hours after Jacobs was killed, Officer Daniel Ivan of the Los Angeles Police Department went to Cedars Sinai Medical Center to interview a friend of the singer who was injured in the same incident.
A friend said he went to Johnny’s bar, a beer and wine spot attached to Johnny’s pastrami. The long-standing sandwich stand, which closed in 2015, reopened five years later as part of the revitalization of the West Adams area.
Just before the bar closed, a friend said, he and Jacobs walked the two women who had met their car that night. As they crossed the street, a friend heard the shooting – 15-20 shots, Ivan testified. Shot in both legs, he hid behind the trash can. Jacobs stumbled and fell.
The friend did not see the shooter, Ivan testified.
Using surveillance footage, Ivan determined that the murderer had driven an Impala and Mercedes-Benz sports utility vehicle. The registered owner of Impala is Garey Marshall, later 42, and officers testified. According to Ivan, the SUV was rented to Grady Montgomery’s girlfriend through the Turo Car-Sharing app.
Both Marshall and Montgomery testified to be members of Rollin ’30s in the 30s.
Ivan said both cars and both men were captured on surveillance video at Martin Luther King Junior Park, a hangout in the 30s.
Ivan said Marshall and Montgomery were seen in the park, showing the shooter wearing white shirts, although surveillance video was rough. According to Ivan, Marshall’s phone records showed Jacobs traveled towards Westadamus before he was killed.
Gabriel De Alba, a LAPD officer who monitors Rollin ’30, testified that the gang began in the 1970s as a group called The Armed Godfathers. That territory now extends from Jefferson to King Boulevard and from Normandy Avenue to Crenshaw Boulevard, Deval said.
De Alba testified to help strengthen the gang against Marshall and Montgomery.
Atty, Los Angeles County. Nathan Hochman allowed the prosecutors to submit intensification that would increase the prison conditions if the prosecutor proved that the crime had benefited the gang – his predecessor, George Gascon, banned the use.
The Rollin ’30s’ enemy includes black rocks claiming the area where Jacobs was killed, De Alba said. Black p-stones often wear red, but De Alba said gangs are no longer as technically color coded as they once did.
Marshall’s lawyer, Zino Osehobo, said it was pure speculation that his client was even the murder of Jacobs, far less than he was a archer.
“I can’t even call it circumstantial evidence,” he said by asking Superior Court Judge Craig Vails to dismiss the murder charge. “That’s a case based on assumptions.”
Montgomery’s representative, Dion Benjamin, said there was “no evidence” in support of the gang’s strengthening. The mere fact is that someone was killed in a place where the gang believes its territory would not be a gang crime, Benjamin told the judge.
Veals disagreed, finding that Montgomery and Marshall have seen enough evidence to be brought to trial on charges of murder and attempted to strengthen the gang.
The judge said it was “completely plausible” that the defendant mistaken Jacobs and his friend for a rival “given the colour of the cap in question.” “There’s certainly a problem here. It’s a circumstance case. It’s not weak in any stretch.”
Source link
