LAKEPORT For the second time in four months, a Lake County Superior Court Judge has declined to set bail for Renato Hughes Jr., accused of double murder in causing the death of two of his companions during a robbery attempt in Clearlake Park last December.
Judge Arthur H. Mann issued a ruling last Thursday stating that the murders for which Hughes is accused are “a capital crime for which the facts are evident and the presumption is great” and concluded that in accordance with the state penal code will remain in custody at Lake County Jail on no bail.
Mann, who also ruled against a motion for setting bail by Hughes” former attorney Stephen Carter on March 6, issued the most recent finding after taking a motion and argument by Hughes” defense attorney Stuart Hanlon of San Francisco into submission. Hanlon formally presented the motion in Lake County Superior Court on June 12.
A press release issued last week said that the motion would refute the claim that homeowner Shannon Edmonds shot Hughes” companions Rashad Williams and Christian Foster in self-defense as, along with Hughes, they fled from his home. The document said that new evidence would show there was “racial motivation” for the killings for which Hughes is being charged under a section of the law holding accomplices responsible in crimes that could result in a lethal response.
But Mann was not swayed. The judge also was apparently unmoved by letters supporting bail for Hughes from several Bay area civic and community leaders, including San Francisco Board of Supervisors member Ross Mirkarimi, the Rev. Amos Brown of San Francisco”s Third Baptist Church and Shawn M. Richards, Executive Director of Brothers Against Guns.
Others charging that Hughes” race is a reason he is being prosecuted here include Van Jones, director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Dr. Amos Brown, president of the San Francisco branch of the NAACP. Jones charges that Edmonds” shooting of Foster and Williams was an “execution, not self-defense” and that there is “not one shred of evidence” tying Hughes to the invasion of Edmonds” home and the shootings.
It was not the first time that Hughes” supporters have implied that the county”s justice system is racially biased, which Chief Deputy District Attorney Jon Hopkins called “irresponsible.”
“It”s rather disappointing to hear people who are trying to fight for civil rights saying things like they”ve said,” Hopkins asserted. “I think it”s a shame that a civil rights institution like Ella Barker would get involved in this fashion.
“If they”re paying any attention at all, they would know that the criminalist team is finishing its analysis of forensic evidence to determine what evidence connects Mr. Hughes to this case. If they talk to the attorney who is defending the case (Hanlon), they”ll know that a person ran from the house with a shotgun after hitting (Edmonds) in the face with it, one of them was hitting his wife in the face with his fists and the other was hitting a son in the head with a baseball bat three or four times and causing permanent brain injury to the point where he still cannot speak.
“When (Edmonds) grabbed a gun to defend himself and his family, a robbery was still in progress, and there was a man out there in the dark with a shotgun. Those are the issues that come to bear on the case in the final analysis,” Hopkins continued. “This had nothing to do with race.”
Hopkins also dismissed statistics attributed to Brown”s press release stating that only 7 percent of California”s population is black and yet in the criminal justice system 50 percent of the population is black.
“Too many (African Americans) are disproportionately locked up and going to the gas chamber,” Brown was quoted.
“They”re referring to racial statistics that are out there in the state that have nothing to do with this case,” Hopkins said.
He also brushed aside a characterization of Hughes as a young man who played the cello with a Bay Area orchestra, won college scholarships and Junior Olympic medals and was a student body officer in high school.
“The issue is not what Mr. Hughes was doing before this incident,” he said.
Hughes” supporters, he added, have not been in touch with him.
“All they”ve done is gone with the version they”ve been given and I don”t know why they”re doing that,” says Hopkins. “Maybe they feel they need to get the support that will furnish Hughes” defense.”
Contact John Lindblom at jlwordmith@mchsi.com.
