Articles tagged with: Los Angeles

(7/8) — UPDATED 19:31 PDT — LOS ANGELES — Johannes Mehserle, the former BART Police Officer who shot and killed unarmed passenger Oscar Grant on January 1, 2009 at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland, has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter by a Los Angeles jury.

The jury found Mehserle not guilty of the most serious charge he faced: murder. The verdict means Mehserle will face from five to 14 years in state prison for Grant’s death.

(6/10) — 23:30 PDT — LOS ANGELES — Opening statements were presented in a Los Angeles courtroom Thursday morning in the historic second-degree murder trial of former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who shot unarmed BART passenger Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009.

The trial marks the first time a police officer in California has been tried for murder for a killing committed while on duty.

UPDATED (6/10) — 14:30 PDT — LOS ANGELES – Did former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle intend to shoot unarmed passenger Oscar Grant? Was Grant resisting arrest at the time of the incident?

These are questions the jury will try to answer in determining whether Mehserle is guilty of second-degree murder in Grant’s shooting on the Fruitvale platform on New Year’s Day 2009.

Opening arguments began in a Los Angeles courtroom this morning for a historic trial which marks the first time a police officer in California has been tried for murder due to on-duty actions.

(6/9) — 0245 PDT — LOS ANGELES — No African Americans will sit on the final jury panel selected Tuesday in the second-degree murder trial of former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who shot and killed unarmed BART passenger Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009.

The prosecution in the second-degree murder trial of Johannes Mehserle, the former BART Police officer who shot and killed unarmed passenger Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009, is opposing defense requests to exclude evidence of the use of a racial slur shortly before the shooting and testimony from the mother of Grant’s child from the trial, according to documents made public yesterday by the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Meanwhile, the defense is now seeking to prevent the use of a synchronized compilation of videos of the shooting made by the prosecution at trial.

(6/2) — 0100 PDT — OAKLAND — At a candlelight vigil in Downtown Oakland on the eve of jury selection in the second-degree murder trial of former BART Police officer Johannes Mehserle, supporters of shooting victim Oscar Grant said they were not happy about the direction the trial has taken so far.

Potential jurors in the second-degree murder trial of former BART Police Officer Johannes Mehserle, who shot unarmed passenger Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009, will be asked questions about their attitudes towards race relations and police officers, according to a document released today by the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The attorney for BART shooting victim Oscar Grant’s family has filed a request to be removed from the potential witness list of the defense for Johannes Mehserle, the former BART Police officer charged with second-degree murder in the shooting.

Mehserle’s defense attorney, Michael Rains, had asked to subpoena Grant family attorney John Burris, saying that Burris could provide “testimony concerning threats or intimidation” of witnesses who “may be reluctant to give testimony which would ostensibly be helpful to Mr. Mehserle and harmful to Mr. Grant.”