A state appellate court has reversed a San Bernardino gang member’s murder conviction stemming from a 2014 drive-by shooting, ruling that a rap video he appeared in was prejudicial and should not have been admitted as evidence at his trial.
It is the first criminal conviction in California to be overturned under a new law requiring judges to weigh more carefully “forms of creative expression” — explicitly rap videos and lyrics — that could be racially biased and prejudicial against defendants before admitting them as evidence at trial, said Jacquelyn Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office.
Travon Rashad Venable Sr., 34, of San Bernardino was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to 129 years to life in prison in connection with the fatal shooting of Enon Damon Edwards, 20, and the wounding of another man in a drive-by shooting at Medical Center Drive and Union Street in San Bernardino on March 5, 2014.
Venable was the alleged driver of the white Kia used in the killing. Under a plea agreement, co-defendant Elgin Johnson, 28, the alleged shooter, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in December 2019, and was sentenced to 22 years in prison, court records show.
‘New avenue’ for court challenges
“The potential impact of this decision, if it stands, is that it would likely raise a new avenue for convictions to be challenged,” Rodriguez said in an email Tuesday, Feb 21. It was unclear whether the District Attorney’s Office will retry the case. “We would examine each case individually for retrial,” she said.
Defense attorney James Gass, who represented Venable, said in a telephone interview that the prosecution’s case relied heavily on the rap video evidence.
Initially, a witness who had been a police informant came forward in 2014 and identified Venable and Johnson as the perpetrators. Police presented that evidence to prosecutors, who declined to file charges. The case languished for two years,…
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