[dehai-news] (Oakland Tribune) Six-month pretrial hearing in Thanksgiving homicides ends


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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Tue Jul 01 2008 - 09:01:50 EDT


Six-month pretrial hearing in Thanksgiving homicides ends By Paul T.
Rosynsky
Oakland Tribune
Article Created: 06/30/2008 06:04:45 PM PDT

    OAKLAND — The preliminary hearing for two brothers accused of following
through on a plot that resulted in the slaying of three in-laws during a
2006 Thanksgiving Day dinner ended Monday with defense attorneys maintaining
their argument the brothers are the victims in the case.

After more than 20 days of testimony over the last six months, Alameda
County Deputy District Attorney John Jay and three defense attorneys gave
their final arguments and submitted the death penalty case to Alameda County
Superior Court Judge Robert McGuiness.

The arguments ended what Jay described as the longest preliminary hearing he
has ever experienced and sent the salacious details of the crime to
McGuiness, who must now decide if there is enough evidence to hold the two
brothers in custody for a full jury trial.

In making his decision, McGuiness must consider more than 80 separate pieces
of evidence and hours of testimony before deciding if the case is about
vengeance or self-defense.

The prosecution argued vengeance Monday and said evidence presented during
the preliminary hearing proves the murder suspects, Asmerom and Tewodros
Gebreselassie, followed a carefully scripted plan to kill their in-laws.

It was a plan devised by the brothers for revenge because they believed
their in-laws killed their brother in hopes of securing a $500,000 life
insurance policy, Jay argued in court.

The prosecution alleges Tewodros Gebreselassie put
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the plan in motion by using his cell phone to signal his brother Asmerom
that those they wished to murder had gathered at an apartment on Telegraph
Avenue.

After getting the signal, the prosecution alleges Asmerom Gebreselassie
arrived at the apartment, was let in by Tewodros and then gunned down his
sister-in-law Winta Mehari, brother-in-law Yonos Mehari and mother-in-law
Regbe Bahrenegasi.

"This family is extremely angry, this family is seeking revenge," Jay said
of the Gebreselassie brothers. "What better way to take out that revenge
than to massacre (the Meharis)."

Both are charged with three counts of murder, one count of attempted murder,
one count of kidnapping and two counts of false imprisonment.

But the defense attorneys, led by Assistant Public Defender Ray Plumhoff,
argued at least one of the defendants, Asmerom Gebreselassie, was acting in
self-defense as they described a set of circumstances that included
accusations of child molestation, insurance fraud and secret homosexuality.

Robert Beles, a defense attorney for the other defendant, Tewodros
Gebreselassie, argued his client was simply in the wrong place at the wrong
time and left as soon as the shooting began. Beles said cell phone records
prove his client never talked with his brother before the shooting and that
he left the apartment with his 2-year-old nephew for safety, not to kidnap
him as alleged by the prosecution.

"What happened on Thanksgiving Day had nothing to do with what happened to
his brother," Plumhoff said of his client Asmerom Gebreselassie. "He was
going to that apartment alone to discuss an issue that he knew was going to
be sensitive."

That issue was the outing of his brother-in-law as gay, Plumhoff said.
According to Plumhoff, Asmerom Gebreselassie found out his brother-in-law
Merhawi Mehari was gay and suspected the brother-in-law was molesting his
nephew.

Plumhoff said his client came to his in-laws' apartment on Thanksgiving Day
to announce his findings to family members, whose strict Eritrean Orthodox
religious background shuns homosexuality.

Since several members of the Mehari family knew that Asmerom Gebreselassie
had found out about Merhawi Mehari, Plumhoff argued, they pulled out their
own weapons when they saw Asmerom Gebreselassie enter the apartment. That,
Plumhoff said, prompted his client to begin shooting in self-defense.

Jay, however, discounted the theory, saying if the Mehari family intended to
kill Asmerom Gebreselassie, there would have been evidence showing bullet
holes in the walls behind where Asmerom Gebreselassie allegedly stood as he
began firing his handgun.

"The evidence has established guilt," Jay said. "There is no self-defense in
this case."

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