Jury Reaches Verdict in Halloween Murder Case

 Jurors Monday reached a guilty verdict in the trial of a former Oakland High  School student accused of murdering a 15-year-old Alameda girl at a  park on Halloween night in 2007.
     
The jury agreed with prosecutor Tim Wellman that Quochuy "Tony" Tran is  the person who fired the shot that killed Ichinkhorloo "Iko" Bayarsaikhan her  during an attempted robbery at Washington Park at 799 Central Ave. in Alameda  at about 10 p.m. on Oct. 31, 2007. Tran was 16 at the time and is now 19.
     
Tran's attorney, Anne Beles tried to convince jurors to find Tran not guilty,  saying that it's unclear who fired the shot that killed Bayarsaikhan, who had  moved from her native of Mongolia to the U.S. three years earlier.  They did not buy that theory and found Tran guilt of first degree murder with personal use of  a firearm.
      
Wellman said Iko, who was a junior at Alameda High School, and a  group of nine friends were hanging out in the park when they were approached  by Tran and a group of five of his friends.
     
Tran and his friends had met at Lincoln Recreation Center in  Oakland earlier in the evening and decided to go to Alameda to commit a  robbery, according to Wellman.
     
Wellman said one of Tran's friends was carrying a .22-caliber  rifle and that friend gave the rifle to another member of their group, who  fired four warning shots into the air during the attempt to rob Iko and her  friends.
     
But he said some of Iko's friends thought the gun wasn't real  because it didn't make a loud sound, so they walked toward Tran and his  friends.
     
Wellman said Tran then grabbed the gun and fired a single shot  that killed Iko.
     
Iko screamed and fell to the ground after she was shot, he said.  The bullet entered her back, went through her left lung and ripped through  her heart, according to Wellman. She was pronounced dead at Highland Hospital  in Oakland around 11 p.m.
     
Tran and five of his friends were arrested after the shooting and  they all were charged with murder in connection with the shooting because  Iko's death occurred during an attempted robbery, Wellman said.
     
The other five defendants were convicted of murder in juvenile  court. Tran is the only one being prosecuted as an adult.
     
The other five defendants testified in Tran's trial.