News

Jurors Hear What Teens Told Police After Calif. Paramedic`s Killing

Malaika Fraley

08/19/2015

Aug. 18--OAKLAND -- The trial in the murder of Quinn Boyer continued Monday with jurors hearing statements given to police by two of six teens allegedly involved in the paramedic's slaying, including one a defense attorney says is the real killer.

"By the end of the night, I'm not going to change. I didn't do it. It was not me," then-15-year-old Nazhee Flowers told detectives in 2013, days after Boyer was fatally shot in the head in the Oakland Hills during an attempted carjacking.

Flowers, now 18, pleaded guilty in adult court for a separate carjacking and is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence. Christian Burton, now 18, and David McNeal, now 17, are on trial for murder. While they are being prosecuted as adults, three other teens have pleaded guilty to Boyer's murder in juvenile court and are serving out their sentences.

Prosecutor Glenn Kim said the six boys, ages 13 through 16, were on a two-day crime spree that included Boyer's murder, two carjackings, a high-speed police chase, and the shooting of a middle-school boy. He said it was Burton who shot Boyer during an attempted carjacking in the Oakland Hills on April 2, 2013, and McNeal who shot the boy in East Oakland the next day.

Boyer, a 34-year-old Santa Clara County paramedic and Dublin resident, was pronounced dead April 4, 2013. He had been married less than a year. The younger shooting victim testified at the trial last week. A bullet is still lodged in his buttocks.

Attorney Ernie Castillo will argue at the end of the trial that it was Flowers, and not Burton, who fatally shot Boyer.

Last week the jury heard from two of the juvenile defendants, all of whom told police that Burton shot Boyer. Flowers said the same in his video played Monday, however, McNeal's video was edited so that jurors didn't hear who he said pulled the trigger. The editing was done for legal reasons, namely his right to testify conflicts with Burton's right to cross-examine anyone who might incriminate him.

Then there is an eyewitness account that incriminates both Flowers and Burton in different ways, even though the witness said she only saw one gunman and everyone else said both boys approached Boyer's car.

In the teens' testimony presented so far, all are unanimous in saying that Burton accidentally shot Boyer because the gun had a sensitive trigger.

"He was kind of lost for words," Flowers said, describing to police Burton's reaction after shooting.

On the stand Monday, Oakland police Lt. Randy Brandwood said he and his partner used a ruse during Flowers' interview by telling the boy that two of his friends, including his best friend McNeal, and the eyewitness identified him as the shooter.

Flowers remained adamant that it wasn't him and pleaded with detectives: Will you please tell Burton that everyone says that it was him, like you did to me?

"Can you tell him that, because I'm pretty sure that he'll admit it," Flowers said.

Burton's statement is expected to be played for the jury on Tuesday, after the jury hears the rest of McNeal's interview.

McNeal told police that he got the .22-caliber gun used in both shootings from his cousin. It's never been found by police. Kim said at the start of the trial that McNeal told police that he gave it to his aunt and she destroyed it, but when officers questioned the aunt she denied the story.

Evidence in the trial is expected to conclude on Wednesday, with closing arguments tentatively scheduled for Sept. 2. Neither defendant is expected to testify.