Teens Accused of Killing California Medic Could Face Life
Sept. 02--OAKLAND -- A prosecutor on Wednesday asked jurors to convict two teenage boys of first-degree murder in the 2013 killing of Santa Clara County paramedic Quinn Boyer during an attempted carjacking in the Oakland hills.
"Quinn Boyer did the one thing most of us don't do: He pulled over to send a text message. Why? Because his life was dedicated to the safety of others," Alameda County deputy district attorney Glenn Kim said in his closing argument at the trial for alleged shooter Christian Burton, 18, and suspected accomplice David McNeal, 17.
They are two of six teens implicated in Boyer's death, but the only ones to be prosecuted for his murder as adults, and could receive life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted. Both of their attorneys will argue Thursday that their clients are innocent of the murder charge.
Boyer, a 34-year-old Dublin resident, had pulled to the side of Keller Avenue on April 2, 2013, when a carload of 13- to 16-year-old teens looking to carjack their second victim of the day stopped in front of him, Kim said.
All of the teens, including Burton, said to police or on the witness stand that Burton and Nazhee Flowers got out of the car to confront Boyer and that Burton was the shooter. Burton, who was a 16-year-old Oakland High student at the time, said he didn't know the gun was loaded and that the shooting was accidental. When he got back into the car, his friends laughed about it, he told police.
"They left him to die while they were laughing," Kim said.
Boyer ran over a small tree and then drove off an embankment. As he was being loaded into an ambulance after a 20-minute rescue effort, the teens were captured on surveillance video browsing the men's department at the Southland Mall Macy's. Boyer's relatives shielded their eyes as Kim's argument opened with a police video of the 34-year-old Dublin resident shortly after he was shot in the head, overlaid with audio of Burton's police statement.
Burton's attorney Ernie Castillo has said that Burton gave a false confession. Castillo argued Wednesday that Flowers is the actual shooter based on the description of the shooter given by the "sole unbiased eyewitness" in the case: an Oakland hills woman who watched and reported the shooting.
Her description of what the shooter was wearing -- a beige jacket and a baseball cap -- matches what Flowers was seen wearing on surveillance video captured just before the first carjacking, about an hour before Boyer was shot. She also said she only saw one teen outside Boyer's car.
"That description is everything in this case. She has no motive to lie," Castillo said. "It means a lot more than anything these kids said on the stand or the games they played with police."
Damani Watts, 16, Rodkei Royal, 17, and Maurice Senegal, 16, each pleaded to first-degree murder in juvenile court and were still serving out their sentences with state Division of Juvenile Justice when they testified at the current trial.
Flowers, 18, did not testify. He took a plea deal for one of two carjackings the group committed that day and is serving a 15-year sentence.
Castillo argued for about 30 minutes on Wednesday before court he finished for the day. The trial resumes Thursday morning with more of his argument, followed by attorney David Bryden's argument on behalf of McNeal and Kim's rebuttal.
McNeal is also charged with one of two carjackings the group committed that day, and with shooting a Frick Middle School student in the buttocks during a robbery on April 3, 2013, with the same gun used to killed Boyer.
Contact Malaika Fraley at 925-234-1684. Follow her at Twitter.com/malaikafraley.
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