Oakland man guilty in killing of 8-year-old Alaysha Carrradine

An Alameda County jury also found Darnell Williams, 25, guilty of three special circumstances that could lead to a death sentence: lying in wait, committing multiple murders and committing a murder in the course of the robbery.

Jurors were ordered to return to Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland on May 16 to begin the death penalty phase of the trial.

The jury’s decision comes after a lengthy trial for the slayings of 8-year-old Alaysha Carradine on June 13, 2013, and Anthony Medearis, whom Williams shot and killed during a robbery at a dice game in Berkeley almost three months later.

Over the course of 13 days of testimony from more than 30 witnesses, Deputy District Attorney John Brouhard painted Williams as a vigilante angry over the killing in Berkeley of a friend, Jermaine Davis, hours before Alaysha was shot.

Much of the prosecution’s case rested on the testimony of two women, Williams’ ex-girlfriend Britney Rogers and another acquaintance, Laquana Nuno, both of whom said that Williams confessed to the shooting.

Defense attorneys Deborah Levy and Darryl Billups asked jurors to distance themselves from the emotional nature of much of the testimony.