XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.politics.republicans, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.california   
   From: democrats@caused.it   
      
   OAKLAND — An Oakland man was convicted of first-degree murder and use of a   
   firearm in the 2020 shooting death of his onetime neighbor, a homicide that   
   exposed institutional failures and led to a multimillion-dollar settlement   
   for the victim’s widow.   
      
   Jamal Thomas, 47, was convicted Tuesday of murdering 44-year-old Miles   
   Armstead. Jurors deliberated for one day before reaching the verdict.   
      
   Armstead, an Oakland resident who left behind a pregnant wife, was shot and   
   killed on May 1, 2020, while working on remodeling his home in anticipation   
   of moving. It was Thomas’ harassment that inspired the couple’s decision to   
   move. On nearly two dozen instances, Thomas was arrested on suspicion of   
   harassing and threatening the couple or vandalizing their home on the 7500   
   block of Ney Avenue, including by throwing a brick through a window that   
   nearly struck Armstead’s wife, according to court filings.   
      
   After one arrest for threatening the Armsteads, Thomas openly voiced his   
   intentions to murder Armstead when police sat him down for an interview.   
      
   “Guess what guys? I’ll be right back,” Thomas told Oakland officers,   
   according to court records. “I’m gonna kill him next time.”   
   Thomas was identified as the shooter by multiple neighbors. He had   
   previously lived next door to Armstead but had been evicted months earlier,   
   then continued to squat at the residence. Others on the block were familiar   
   with his appearance, but Thomas’ lawyer wrote in court papers that some of   
   the witnesses identified the shooter as having long dreadlocks, and that   
   when Thomas was arrested his hair was short.   
      
   The well-documented lead-up to the murder prompted a lawsuit by Armstead’s   
   widow and a $2.4 million settlement, paid by Alameda County and the city of   
   Oakland. The suit alleged that the county’s probation department and Oakland   
   police had missed warning signs and failed to act on a situation that was   
   escalating toward violence.   
      
   “I first want to thank the jury for their diligent work in delivering this   
   guilty verdict,” Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price said in a   
   statement. “We recognize this horrific tragedy leaves a wife without a   
   husband and her children without a father and a community forever   
   traumatized by this unacceptable and vicious attack on an unarmed man.”   
      
   Thomas is set to be sentenced in mid-August. He faces 25 years to life on   
   the murder charge alone.   
      
   https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/07/17/im-gonna-kill-him-next-time-oakland-   
   man-convicted-of-killing-former-neighbor-in-escalating-conflict-that-led-   
   to-2-4-million-lawsuit-settlement/   
      
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