San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi said today that surveillance tape and their investigation show police “have the wrong person” in the September 2 murder of 14-year-old Rashawn Williams.
Adachi wants charges against his client, a juvenile who has been in custody for three months, dismissed.
His client, whose name has not been released to the press because he is a juvenile, has a hearing in January to determine whether he will be tried as an adult or a juvenile.
The grainy video Adachi and Public Defender Gregory Feldman showed today appears to indicate that the suspect’s companion stabbed Williams outside of Rubin’s market on 26th and Folsom Streets.
Adachi and Feldman declined to identify the second person in the video, to say whether the person is a juvenile or to say whether they or police investigators have spoken with the individual.
It was clear, however, that both are unhappy with the police and the district attorney’s investigations.
“Why they didn’t investigate it (the evidence in the video) is beyond us,” Adachi said. Their investigation, he said, has not been adequate.
“There is no question based on this video that they have the wrong person,” he said.
Police officials said they would not comment on an on-going and “highly charged” case. The District Attorney’s office has not yet responded to calls for a comment.
The suspect in custody was a classmate of Williams when they attended Buena Vista Horace Mann. He was arrested three months ago for the stabbing and the Williams family has been pressing for the district attorney to try him as an adult. That request will be considered at a January hearing.
With the evidence of the new video, a decision to try him as an adult could keep the suspect in custody.
Adachi said that in a juvenile case, mere presence at a crime is not enough to bring murder charges against a suspect.
District Attorney Gascón, he said, has agreed to look at the evidence, but there is no formal hearing set to consider dismissing the charges.
“We don’t want him in jail waiting for a trial,” Adachi said referring to his client.
The public defender’s office has had the video for two months and both officials said they had waited to make the video public because they needed to complete a thorough investigation and to get the agreement of their client.
At today’s press conference they walked the media through a series of still photographs and a final video. The photographs, taken from video at the 24th Street BART Plaza and McDonald’s show their client leaving McDonalds with a friend about 10 minutes before the stabbing took place at 26th and Folsom Streets.
In the video, two people who appear to be same as those in the earlier stills are outside of Rubin’s market and it appears that the suspect’s companion is the one who uses a knife to stab Williams.
If you go with your friend to make a hit then arent you liable for a conspiracy charge at least???doesnt the cyber bullying involved set the motive and criminal threats???
There is no way all charges can be dropped….
The public defender thinks that a client is not guilty?
Gee, I’m shocked. It’s his job to say that. It’s his job to get him off.