Local News

Hayward Man Guilty In Shooting Death Of Student

OAKLAND (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ― Jurors convicted a Hayward man Tuesday of voluntary manslaughter for fatally shooting a female friend who had called him for help after a run-in with a group of college football players.

The Alameda County jury also found Christopher Hollis guilty of assault with a firearm and being a felon in possession of a firearm in the shooting death of Meleia Willis-Starbuck, a 19-year-old Dartmouth College student. 

Witnesses said she had called Hollis for help during an argument with University of California, Berkeley, football players and told him to bring a gun.

Defense lawyer Greg Syren said Hollis was "relieved" that jurors convicted him of voluntary manslaughter instead of murder. The attorney said his client meant to shoot over the football players' heads to scare them, but accidentally shot Willis-Starbuck instead.

Hollis's conviction on the lesser charge means that the 24-year-old "has gotten an opportunity to get his life back" and "will be able to live part of his life outside a prison wall," Syren said. 

Hollis could face six to 21 years in prison when he is sentenced July 14 by Superior Court Judge Vernon Nakahara. If Hollis only gets six years, he could be paroled in as little as three years because he's already been in custody for nearly three years. 

Prosecutor Elgin Lowe had asked jurors to convict Hollis of either first-degree murder, which would have brought a term of at least 25 years to life, or second-degree murder, which would have brought at least 15 years to life.

Hollis, who was dressed in a light brown corduroy blazer, appeared to sigh with relief when the jury's verdict was announced. He then rubbed his forehead and chin and Syren patted him on the back.

Lowe told reporters afterward, "I respect the jury's decision" but declined to comment further.

Syren told jurors in his opening statement that Hollis and Willis-Starbuck were such close friends that they called each other "sister" and "brother."

Syren and Lowe agreed in their closing arguments that Willis-Starbuck called Hollis for help after she and several female friends got into a confrontation with a group of seven to 10 University of California, Berkeley football players after the players tried to pick up the women and then insulted them after their advances were rebuffed.

The defense attorney and the prosecutor also agreed that Hollis fired at least several shots from a .30-caliber gun toward a crowd in the incident near the intersection of College Avenue and Dwight Way in Berkeley about 2 a.m. on July 17, 2005, and that one of the bullets killed Willis-Starbuck, who had returned to Berkeley to take a summer job providing social and health services to low-income women.

But Syren and Lowe strongly disagreed about the charge for which Hollis should be convicted.

Lowe told jurors that they should convict Hollis of either first- or second-degree murder because by firing four or five shots he acted with conscious disregard for human life and he had time to reflect on his actions before aiming again and pulling the trigger for his final shots.

But Syren said Hollis should only be convicted of voluntary manslaughter because he "had no intent to kill anyone" and was only trying to disperse the crowd of people who were gathered on the street that morning.

Lowe alleged that Hollis, an aspiring rap singer, was trying to burnish his reputation as a tough guy by firing his gun, noting that when Hollis was arrested after two months on the run that he never saw Willis-Starbuck and his sole purpose was to scare the Cal football players.

But Syren said, "This is not a murder case. It is a case that involves someone who was seeking to protect their friend who did something that was rash and who did something that was immature."

After the verdict, Syren said, "I'm very happy that the jury got the message that this case was less than a murder."

But he said that even though Hollis in effect "won" his case by being convicted of a lesser charge, "There's an important message for the young people of the East Bay that you don't bring handguns to situations."

Syren said Willis-Starbuck's parents wanted the Alameda County District Attorney's office to allow Hollis to plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter because they didn't want his case to go to trial.

But prosecutors didn't want a plea bargain and instead insisted on trying to win a murder conviction, Syren said.

According to authorities, Hollis was convicted of selling marijuana in 2002 and wasn't supposed to be carrying any weapons.

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