Three motions brought before Lake County Superior Court Judge Arthur H. Mann on Monday, Dec. 4, by Renato Hughes Jr.”s defense attorney were continued to Tuesday, Jan. 16. One of the motions, said Hughes” lawyer, was for a change of venue.
Hughes is charged with the shooting deaths of his two companions, Christian Foster, 22, of San Francisco, and Rashad Williams, 21, of Pittsburg; in an alleged robbery gone bad at the Clearlake Park home of Shannon Edmonds a year ago, Dec. 7, 2005.
What makes the case unusual, and controversial, is that Hughes did not wield the Browning automatic pistol that killed his companions. Although Edmonds actually pulled the trigger, Hughes is being held for their deaths under a clause in the law that holds co-perpetrators of a felonious act responsible if the act is likely to provoke lethal resistance.
Edmonds testified that the three men broke into his home and demanded the marijuana he said he grows for medicinal purposes. When Edmonds resisted, the trio allegedly beat his fiance and bludgeoned his 17-year-old son with a metal bat.
But was it really an attempted robbery? That is one of the points Hughes” San Francisco lawyer Stewart Hanlon may contest.
“The media presumed that this was a home robbery and that my client was involved in it,” said Hanlon, “and therefore under the law he”s guilty not just of the home robbery but of the two murders. So therefore in this situation, the media has convicted him before any evidence was taken.”
Hughes” former attorney, Stephen Carter, previously argued that the men were at Edmonds” home to buy marijuana, and that the alleged 4 a.m. robbery should be cosidered a separate act from the murders of Hughes” companions, meaning that the “provocative law” act would not apply.
The motion for a change of venue, said Hanlon, will be supported by the results of a survey to be presented and explained by Craig Heany, a UC Santa Cruz professor of psychology.
Hanlon contends that the rationale was not that he believes Lake County to be a racist community. “I have an African-American client from San Francisco charged with a very awful crime,” he said. “He”s being tried in a county right now that is less than 2 percent African American, which according to the 2005 census is less than 1,300 people, in a case that has real racial stereotypes. I”m very concerned that he can get a fair trial here.
“People don”t have to be racist to base their views on stereotypes,” said Hanlon. “Stereotypes are broken down by interaction,” he asserted, citing Lake County”s 94 percent white population as a source of “issues that ought to be looked into.”
Chief Deputy District Attorney Jon Hopkins stated in September, when Judge Mann set a Jan. 6, 2007 date for the start of the jury trial, that he did not believe the elements required by law for a change of venue were met.
Hopkins said Dec. 4 he had been contacted by Hughes” lawyer regarding the allegation that Hughes and his companions were buying marijuana. In his reply Hopkins said that at 4 a.m., that was unlikely.
In addition to the motion for a change of venue, Hanlon also brought a motion to acquire complaints made by other citizens regarding one of the officers involved in the investigation. Hanlon declined to give the officer”s name pending Judge Mann”s ruling.
The other motion was to get evidence from Mendocino County regarding prior cases in which homeowner Shannon Edmonds was allegedly arrested “for a variety of things related to marijuana sales and violence,” said Hanlon.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
