OAKLAND (BCN) — Five men have been charged with special circumstance murder in the kidnapping, robbery and fatal shooting last September of a 24-year-old man whose body was left in the Oakland hills, prosecutors said.
Armani Miller, 19, is charged with committing a murder during both a robbery and kidnapping for the death of 24-year-old Reynaldo Vazquez, 24, who was found slain on Joaquin Miller Road south of Skyline Boulevard near
Joaquin Miller Park at about 6:20 a.m. last Sept. 30.
Charged with the single special circumstance of committing a murder during a kidnapping are James E. Scott, 23, who is wanted on a no-bail arrest warrant and was the suspected gunman, Carlos Vera, 20, Louis Velasco, 20, and Alejandro Garcia, 22.
Scott is also charged with being an ex-felon in possession of a firearm, as prosecutors say he has prior convictions for carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle and assault.
Oakland police Sgt. Richard Vass wrote in a probable cause statement that Vazquez was robbed and abducted early Sept. 30 from the area of 39th Avenue and East 12th Street in Oakland’s Fruitvale district and forced to a nearby area, where he was placed in the trunk of a vehicle and eventually driven to Joaquin Miller Road.
Vass wrote that Garcia punched and kicked Vazquez while he was held at gunpoint, Scott pistol-whipped Vazquez and Miller robbed him. Scott’s co-conspirators identified Scott as the man who then shot Vazquez.
Vass wrote that after Garcia was arrested at his home in Los Angeles on June 2, “he provided admissions to his involvement regarding the kidnapping and murder of the victim.”
Garcia also said that in the week before Vazquez was killed, Garcia had been driving around looking to shoot him, Vass wrote.
Miller has been in custody in Contra Costa County since Dec. 10. He’s charged with five felonies, including robbery and carjacking for a violent break-in at a home in Orinda on Dec. 8 in which a 53-year-old nanny was pistol-whipped and the residents’ Porsche was stolen.
Vera and Velasco were arrested recently. Vera, Velasco and Garcia have been arraigned in Alameda County Superior Court and are scheduled to return to court on July 11 to enter pleas.
Prosecutors allege that Velasco has a prior felony conviction for unlawfully driving or taking a vehicle and Garcia has a prior conviction for second-degree burglary of a vehicle.