A judge Wednesday ordered a 19-year-old woman to stand trial on a murder charge for allegedly deliberately hitting and killing a man with a car at the site of a street party in East Oakland in June.
At the end of a one-day preliminary hearing, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Joan Cartwright ruled that prosecutors also produced sufficient evidence to have Deja Lewis stand trial on a use of a deadly weapon enhancement clause for allegedly using her car to strike and kill the alleged victim, 33-year-old Oakland resident Luis Velasco.
Lewis is accused of running over Velasco at the corner of 61st Avenue and Eastlawn Street shortly after 9 p.m. on June 16.
Officer Leonel Sanchez said in a probable cause statement filed in court that Lewis has confessed that she knowingly ran over Velasco with her vehicle but claims that she did so after she "was allegedly physically assaulted by an unknown male Hispanic in the 1300 block of 61st Avenue."
According to Sanchez, Lewis then drove to her home, which is two blocks away, and told her sister and friends that she had been assaulted.
Lewis, her sister and the friends then got into the maroon Buick Regal that Lewis was driving and "returned to the scene to confront the male Hispanic that allegedly had assaulted her," Sanchez said.
Lewis and some of the occupants got our of the car and "began to yell at the male Hispanics who were loitering in the area" where the street party was taking place, he said.
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Velasco was one of the men standing in front of Lewis' car but he "was not threatening or being confrontational toward Lewis or her friends," according to Sanchez.
Police said they aren't sure if Velasco was part of the original confrontation at which Lewis alleged she was assaulted or if he came to the party after Lewis left to get her sister and friends.
Lewis got back into her car, drove away quickly and "knowingly and suddenly accelerated," running over Velasco, Sanchez said.
Velasco was pronounced dead at the scene.
Sanchez said investigators determined that "Lewis was not provoked by Velasco in any manner."
