Two 18-year-old men have been charged with murder in the fatal shooting of a 32-year-old Redwood City man while he was trying to sell a cellphone to them at a gas station in unincorporated San Leandro last month, Alameda County sheriff's officials said.
Marcus Fortune, a San Leandro resident and the alleged shooter, was arrested in his hometown last Thursday and Jordan Patton, the alleged accomplice, was arrested outside his San Francisco home on Nov. 19, according to Deputy Kurtis Imperial.
Patton was charged shortly after he was arrested and Fortune was charged and arraigned on Monday. Both teens are scheduled to return to Alameda County Superior Court in Dublin on Tuesday to be assigned attorneys and possibly enter pleas.
Fortune and Patton are charged for the fatal shooting of Daniel Carlos at the 76 gas station at East 14th Street and 159th Avenue, near the Bay Fair BART station, at about 1:15 p.m. on Nov. 18. Carlos was pronounced dead at the scene.
Carlos was between jobs but used to work for Tesla and is survived by his wife and their 5-year-old daughter, sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly said.
Kelly said the deadly shooting was "shocking" because it was in broad daylight at one of the major intersections in Alameda County where there's a lot of vehicle and foot traffic.
Carlos met the suspects through an online app called "letgo" on which people list items that they want to sell, Kelly said.
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Imperial wrote in a probable cause statement that the arrangement to sell a new iPhone to the suspects was made by a relative of Carlos who was with him during the transaction but wasn't injured.
The relative stayed inside his car while Carlos waited outside with the cellphone, according to Imperial.
When Carlos handed the cellphone to the two suspects, they both began to run out of the gas station's parking lot, the relative said, prompting Carlos to chase them, according to Imperial.
Carlos "was subsequently shot and killed by one of the suspects as they fled with the cellular phone," Imperial wrote.
Several witnesses provided similar descriptions of the suspects and one witness saw the suspects enter a white Nissan Maxima with no license plates, the deputy wrote.
In addition, footage from a nearby surveillance camera depicted distinctive features on the Nissan, according to Imperial.
Additional investigation helped deputies identify Fortune and Patton as the suspects. Patton was driving the Nissan when he was arrested on Nov. 19, Imperial said.
Patton told investigators that he was the only person who drove the Nissan on Nov. 18 and denied being in the area where Carlos was killed and denied any knowledge of or involvement in the homicide, Imperial wrote.
However, when deputies searched the Nissan they found a cellphone, which was still in its box, that was the same model and color of the phone that was stolen from Carlos, according to Imperial.
Deputies also found dark-colored clothing that was similar to what the suspects were believed to be wearing at the time of the shooting.
When deputies searched Fortune's residence in San Leandro after he was arrested, they found a black .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun and several unexpended .40-caliber bullets, Imperial wrote.
Some of the bullets contained the same manufactured head stamp brand that was located on the expended .40-caliber shell casing that was found at the murder scene, according to Imperial.
Fortune admitted to investigators that he was involved in the shooting and said the meeting with Carlos "was a planned take and go," Imperial wrote.
He refused to identify Patton as a co-participant, instead saying he was with another person and said "things were not supposed to go down that way," Imperial wrote.
