Absolutely asinine that the DA's office tried to plea this down to vehicular manslaughter given the defendant's criminal history and the circumstances of this case. But I'm not at all surprised since Madame Price has absolutely no clue what she's doing. Sign the recall petition, folks.

Meanwhile...

The Vallejo Police Department is also investigating a fatal hit-and-run collision that involved a suspect vehicle they say was used in more than one recent armed robbery. Defund the police is coming home to roost.

Meanwhile...

Gavin Newsom signed laws aimed at reducing prison sentences for people convicted of drug- and gang-related crimes, despite concerns from prosecutors that the measures will hinder their effort to protect Californians.

Meanwhile...

(SB-731) a bill will that will automatically seal conviction and arrest records for most ex-offenders who are not convicted of another felony for four years after completing their sentences and any parole or probation. Records of arrests that don't bring convictions also would be sealed.

Meanwhile...

The clown up there in Sacramento wants to transform San Quentin State Prison into a rehabilitation facility after decades as the home for death row inmates. And he is allowing a hand-picked advisory council that is allowed to meet in secret.

To meet in secret, folks.

This is the current state of affairs in California, people. This is who you voted for. What a disaster. And it's only going to get worse.

@Malcom Hex

There seems to be continuous reportage of the police apprehending suspects in stolen vehicles, with prior arrests, and outstanding warrants.

It must be very frustrating to arrest the same types of suspects over and over again only to see them back on the streets committing the identical crimes that initially got them into trouble in the first place.

The more progressive California politicians and district attorneys seem to believe that most of these individuals can 'learn their lessons' via reduced charges, minimal sentencing guidelines, bail elimination (with release on their own recognizance), and unsupervised probation.

This concept though humanitarian in intent, is not working because many arrestees are not learning any lessons after being given second chances by society.

Liberals tend to believe that extended incarceration only creates more resentment and anger among inmates which potentially leads to more criminal activity upon their release.

Is it possible that both leniency and harsh punishment don't work because sucessful rehabilitation and reform of a criminal mentality is a low percentage reality?

If so and given the judicial options, extended incarceration should overide leniency (especially if the crime involves violence) because if they are locked-up, repeat offenders cannot repeat crimes.

In any event, each case should be evaluated on an individual basis.

So, this violent individual was already under house arrest for a robbery turned homicide back in 2020. Yet, Pamela Price's office and the violent individual's lawyer wanted to make a plea deal for the 2022 incident whereby he murdered Ms. Woodward while fleeing from the police officers.

Fortunately, Judge Dickinson saw the plea deal as a joke and denied it. Good. If this case goes to a jury trial, the violent individual will most certainly enjoy a very unpleasant stay in prison.

However, Newsome and his clowns up there in Sacramento are attempting to change sentencing guidelines - which in the future could help violent individuals, like the one noted here, become re-sentenced.

Pamela Price and Gavin Newsome are joined at the hip in doing everything they can to help violent offenders.

Well, take a looky here from Channel 2 News:

Teaunte Bailey, 28, was found guilty of first- and second-degree felony murder and robbery.

Pak Ho was on his morning walk in Oakland's Adams Point neighborhood when Bailey jumped out of a nearby vehicle and pushed him causing Mr. Ho to hit his head on the concrete causing him to pass away a days later.

Bailey was wearing a GPS ankle monitor, which enabled investigators to link him to Ho's death and to another home invasion robbery.

Wowser! Imagine that! Another violent offender with an ankle monitor kills another human being. Oh, but it gets better.

When Baily was arrested the deputy district attorney described the decision to drop the enhancements as a decision by his office, but he didn't go into detail.

Pamela Price campaigned on a progressive reform and had told voters she was opposed to adding special circumstances enhancements and the Three Strikes Law, both of which greatly extend prison terms for people convicted of felonies.

The problem with the three strikes law was that it also counted minor (and now former felonies) like growing or selling pot and failure to appear as a strikes.

Look folks, criminals are opportunistic. They look for an opening and take. This is the way they are wired. They enjoy what they do. Why do you think the recidivism rate in California is so high? The number of inmates returning to prison in this state is over 60 percent. Over 60 percent!

The “Three Strikes and You’re Out” law was in response to the tragic murders of Kimber Reynolds and Polly Klaas. The law imposed a life sentence for almost any crime, no matter how minor, if the defendant had two prior convictions for crimes defined as serious or violent by the California Penal Code. Nothing wrong with that, right? Wrong.

Recent reforms have restricted the application of third-strike enhancements for non-serious, non-violent offenses, doubled-sentence enhancements are still imposed for less serious offenses. Three strikes works, but you governor of this state and his merry band of liberal clowns up there in Sacramento, are doing everything they can to lesson the amount of time an inmate is sentence for violent crime. In fact, Alameda County DA Pamela Price will not longer consider sentencing enhancements against violent inmates - including repeat violent offenders.

Meanwhile, violence here in the Bay Area is spinning out of control. I hope you liberals are happy with your governor and his progressive district attorneys.

Fortunately, there is always a tipping point. When enough people get tired of the violence, only then will we start to see a change.

Malcom Hex is 100% correctamundo.

The progressive 'experiment' to provide 2nd and 3rd chances to repeat offenders has failed miserably.

This humanitarian concept has resulted in a far more dangerous society and in many ways, I can understand the frustration that our law enforcement officers endure on a daily basis.

To 'catch and release' should only apply to fly fishing, not criminality.

Does anyone recall the Willie Horton incident? His questionable release played a major role in Michael Dukakis losing the 1988 presidential election.

Ah yes, the Willy Horton disaster. Excellent choice of a violent inmate and the political repercussions that followed, Samantha!

Silly Willy Horton had committed violent crimes while on furlough from prison, where he was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for murder. He was released for a weekend as the beneficiary of a Massachusetts furlough program, he failed to return, and was later recaptured and convicted of committing assault, armed robbery, and rape in Maryland. Yes, the very state a liberal clown known as Michael Dukakis governed.

Horton and two accomplices robbed Joseph Fournier, a 17-year-old gas station attendant, and then fatally stabbed Fournier 19 times after he had cooperated by handing over all of the money in the cash register. His body was stuffed in a trash can, so his feet were jammed up against his chin. Fournier died from blood loss.Horton was convicted of murder, sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

On June 6, 1986, Horton was released as part of a weekend furlough program but did not return. Horton twice raped a woman after pistol-whipping, stabbing, binding, and gagging her fiancé. The Massachusetts legislature quickly passed a bill prohibiting furloughs for such inmates. However, in 1976, Dukakis vetoed this bill, arguing it would "cut the heart” out of efforts at inmate rehabilitation.

You cannot rehabilitate violent people, folks. They are hard wired to commit violent crime. Dukakis’ stupidity basically cost him a presidential election. Stupid is as stupid does. And by the way, that also includes the governor of California.

"You cannot rehabilitate violent people, folks. They are hard wired to commit violent crime."

@Malcom Hex
The same can be said of the January 6th insurrectionists and they should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, wouldn't you concur?

I served on the Contra Costa County Criminal Grand Jury back when Three Strikes was first implemented. It was an "eye opener" in understanding our criminal justice system.
The first case involved a home break-in in Richmond. The thief was apprehended coming out of the home with a VCR under his arm. After we returned the indictment, we were informed he was CoCo County's first "three strikes case." Since it was, in the scheme of things, a relatively minor offense, one of the other jurors asked to hear his other offenses. It took the ADA at least five minutes to read all of the other crimes this individual had committed including attempted murder!
We all left the jury wondering why he was still at large. So when I read above that someone is "worried" about "three strikes" putting people away for minor offenses, I have to laugh! A "third strike" can be a minor offense, but the other two have to be serious ones.

While recurrent crime by repeat offenders is a disturbing statistic, many of these crimes can be attributed to a lack of economic opportunity among those perpetrating these crimes.

Systemic racism is a contributing factor and progressive DAs strive to take the associated factors into full consideration when deciding to prosecuting certain cases and during the course of requesting certain sentencing protocols.

While there is no excuse for violent crimes involving physical harm or death, non-violent cases involving looting and burglary should receive additional consideration because material goods (unlike life) can easily be replaced.

We must learn as a collective society not to get overly attached to a material world and the same applies to those who rob or steal.

@Weiss

Did the insurrectionists commit murder? Name one? At the very least, make your plea arguable.

@Wilkins

Wilkins speaks out of both sides of her mouth.

First, she says the following: "Many of these crimes can be attributed to a lack of economic opportunity."

Then she says: "While there is no excuse for violent crimes involving physical harm or death..."

Which one is it? The problem is you want to base those who commit violent crime by race. Skin color shouldn't be a factor - which makes me wonder about you sense of justice.

Also, your idea of a "collective society," whatever the hell that is, appears to be nothing more than Marxist BLM garbage.

Malcom Hex, Maury Weiss, and Barbara Wilkins have all brought up good points.

(1) There should be minimal room allowing for retail thefts of any kind and the $950.00 ceiling on prosecution raises some questions.

(2) Yes, there is systemic racism in our society that has led to a loss of economic opportunities for marginalized groups but resorting to crime is not a viable solution.

As for the January 6th insurrection in DC...if the 800 or so rioters violently storming the Capitol had been black instead of white individuals, I suspect that the outcome (along with police intervention) would have been different.

@Morales stated the following:

“As for the January 6th insurrection in DC...if the 800 or so rioters violently storming the Capitol…” Did any of those insurrectionists kill anyone? Did any of the insurrectionists burn down the Capitol? Nope.

But BLM and Antifa killed people and burned buildings, cars, etc., over the George Floyd incident. I find it interesting that you never mentioned those so-called organizations as terrorists. But to put this in perspective, read on.

On July 15, 2017, Justine Damond, 40-year-old Australian-American woman, was fatally shot in the stomach by 31-year-old Somali-American Minneapolis Police Department officer named Mohamed Noor. Now, ask yourself why is it Minneapolis didn’t go crazy after this shooting? Think race played a factor? Oh, but read on.

The jury convicted Noor of third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter, but he was acquitted on the charge of intentional second degree murder. In June 2019, Noor was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison. Noor's conviction on third-degree murder was overturned by the Minnesota Supreme Court on September 15, 2021. In October 2021, his sentence was revised to 4.75 years in prison, with credit for time served. Noor was released from custody on June 27, 2022, and was ordered to remain on supervised release until January 24, 2024.

Damond and Floyd were killed by police officers - one white and one black. Derek Chauvin was sentenced to over 20 years while Mohammed Noor is out now on supervised release. By the way, Damond’s family sued the city and won $20 million dollars. Oh, and Noor was caught lying about the incident at his trial.

I guess who ever screams the loudest wins?

@Malcom Hex: I think this is what Mr. Morales is referring to...had the 800+ DC insurectionists been black instead of white, the predominantly white police officers may have been more inclined to open fire on them.

As it stands, some of the police officers might have shared the same sentiments as the insurrectionists but were bound by duty to hold the fort. That was the dilemma.

@ Wilkins: "While there is no excuse for violent crimes involving physical harm or death, non-violent cases involving looting and burglary should receive additional consideration because material goods (unlike life) can easily be replaced.
We must learn as a collective society not to get overly attached to a material world and the same applies to those who rob or steal."

So it's ok for someone to take my stuff and invade my home or car or rob me because they don't have the things I have and worked for? Is that what you are saying?

@50 year resident

Well stated!

Any form of theft is morally wrong and in many instances, against the law.

While many material items can be replaced via insurance, physical violence should never be used to wrongfully procure someone else's property.

Judges (and most recently prosecutors) take this key factor into serious consideration during the sentencing phase.

@Stroh

All speculation on your part. First, you're attempting to make meaning of what another commentor said. You then speculate that if the insurrectionists were black, the outcome of what actually happened might be different. But you don't know that so why bring it up?

@Malcom Hex
Given the countless cases of police brutality towards black people, it is called reasonable reality.

"...the $950.00 ceiling on prosecution raises some questions."

Inflation has severely impacted the value of the U.S. dollar and $950.00 today is not a lot of money in terms of purchasing power.

As a result, the law acknowledges increases in the costs of living and has established $950.00 as the ceiling for misdemeanor theft.

@Mathers

No such thing as reasonable reliability in regards to criminal law. You made that up.

@Wentworth

We are talking about violent crime not petty theft. Do keep up.