Local News

Witness: Willis-Starbuck 'Amped' Before Shooting

BERKELEY (Bay City News) ― A University of California, Berkeley football player testified today that Dartmouth College student Meleia Willis-Starbuck "sounded a little amped-up" just before she was shot to death in Berkeley in the early morning hours last July 17.

Gary Doxy, an 18-year-old freshman from Long Beach, said Willis-Starbuck, 19, and a group of about four female friends got into a "confrontation" with a group of about six men after one of the men called one of the women a Chewbacca, a reference to a tall, woolly character in the movie "Star Wars."

The incident occurred near Willis-Starbuck's apartment at the intersection of College Avenue and Dwight Way and Doxy said he lived in a dormitory nearby.

Doxy, who said he wasn't directly involved in the confrontation but witnessed it, said the situation calmed down after the men apologized, but Willis-Starbuck told the men, "You guys should leave."

He said Willis-Starbuck told the men, "This is my block and my street and I run this."

Doxy said that shortly after her comment, a shot rang out and he put his head down and ran away as fast as he could.

He said as he started running, he heard Willis-Starbuck say, "That's my brother right there" and the other men also started running away.

Doxy said he then heard three to five more shots.

He said when he got back to his dormitory, someone told him he had blood on his T-shirt and he noticed a mark on his right wrist, which he assumed was from one of the gunshots.

Doxy said he returned to the shooting scene a short while later and saw authorities attending to Willis-Starbuck, who was lying on the ground at the spot where he had last seen her.

Doxy is testifying at the preliminary hearing of Christopher Hollis, a 22-year-old Hayward man, and Christopher Wilson, a 20-year-old Berkeley man, who are both charged with murder in connection with Willis-Starbuck's death. The purpose of the hearing is to determine if there's enough evidence to have them stand trial.

Authorities allege that Hollis fired the shot that killed Willis-Starbuck and that Wilson drove the getaway car.

Hollis and Wilson are also charged with assault with a firearm in connection with the injury that Doxy sustained.

Willis-Starbuck attended Berkeley High School with Wilson and Hollis, who's an aspiring rap artist.

Hollis' lawyer, John Burris, has said that Hollis and Willis-Starbuck had "an extraordinarily close relationship" and "were like sister and brother."

Burris has said that Willis-Starbuck called Hollis to ask for help in the confrontation with the group of men, which included several Cal football players.

Burris conceded earlier this week that the evidence in the case indicates that Hollis fired the shots that killed her, but he said the shooting was an accident and Hollis didn't intend to hurt anyone.

The Cal football team's Web site describes Doxy, who is 6-foot-2 and 180 pounds, as a "hard-hitting safety" for the Long Beach Poly High School Jackrabbits and said he "banged opponents for 7.6 tackles per game" his last year in high school.

Doxy testified that one of the men who was involved in the confrontation was his Cal teammate David Gray, a 21-year-old junior from Richmond who attended McClymonds High School in Oakland. According to the team's Web site, Gray is a wide receiver and is 6-foot-3 and 220 pounds.

Doxy said that just before the shooting, Gray told Willis-Starbuck, "Everything is OK, I apologized, can you go?"

Doxy said Gray and the other men were getting ready to leave the area, and Willis-Starbuck told them a second time, "You all should leave."

Doxy said he didn't see any of the men touch or threaten Willis-Starbuck or any of the other women.

The slow-moving preliminary hearing, which has met on parts of four days, is scheduled to resume on Feb. 9. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Carlos Ynostroza, who is presiding over the hearing, said that he
hopes it concludes either Feb. 9 or Feb. 10.

(Bay City News)