Jaray C., RIF127509, On September 18, 2008
Acquitted of all homicide related charges
These are the articles from the second time that Addison got an acquittal on All homicide related charges
- Charges: Murder (Penal Code § 187(a)) with a gang allegation (Penal Code § 186.22(b)) personal use of a gun (Penal Code § 12022.53(b) and gun use in a gang crime (Penal Code § 12022.53(e)), two counts of attempted robbery (Penal Code § 664/211) with gang allegations (Penal Code § 186.22(b)), gun use in a gang crime (Penal Code § 12022.53(e) and personal use of a gun (Penal Code § 12022.53(b)), two counts of felon in possession of a firearm (Penal Code § 12021(a)(1)), five counts of robbery (Penal Code § 211) with gang allegations (Penal Code § 186.22(b) and gun allegations (Penal Code § 12022(a)(1)).
- Exposure: Jaray was only convicted of a few charges, all of which were conceded to the jury because they were on videotape. He was acquitted of first-degree murder and the lesser degree of second-degree murder. He was acquitted of all personal use of a firearm charges and was acquitted of all possession of firearms charges. He was acquitted of all gang charges and allegations. He was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison. He served that time and went home. He is now working and writing screenplays.
This was a difficult murder trial because the district attorney applied a rarely used theory of first degree murder called provocative act homicide. Jaray had grown up in Compton and when he was young was a member of the Santana Blocc Compton Crips. After he had moved out of the neighborhood he ended up hanging out with a friend from his neighborhood that had been making a living robbing liquor stores.
That friend recruited Jaray to do a robbery with him. Jaray's friend, another friend that would end up being Jaray's co-defendant, and Jaray set out to commit a liquor store robbery. However, Jaray didn't want to carry a real gun, he instead had a realistic looking BB pistol. During the robbery Jaray's friend held his gun to the merchant's head. The merchant grabbed Jaray's friend's gun, pulled his own gun out that he had tucked into the back of his pants and shot and killed Jaray's friend. He then shot Jaray in the back and buttocks as Jaray ran out of the store. Jaray and his co-defendant, who stayed in the car as the getaway driver, were both charged with murder under the provocative act murder theory.
The district attorney's theory was that it was Jaray holding the merchant's girlfriend in order to keep her from running out of the store or calling the police that inspired the merchant to kill Jaray's friend, not the fact that Jaray's friend was holding a gun to the merchant's head. An added twist to the case was that the district attorney had a snitch named McCoy that claimed that Jaray had done a series of other robberies. When one of the merchants from one of the other robberies was testifying, Addison showed her a picture of McCoy and she identified McCoy as the person that robbed her, not Jaray. She said that Jaray was definitely NOT the person that robbed and that McCoy was in fact the person that robbed her.
During closing arguments Addison argued that if the jury was looking for the person that committed all the other robberies that they had seen the real McCoy on the witness on the witness with his made up snitch story. The jury acquitted Jaray of all the other charged robberies. Addison and Jaray conceded that he was a participant in the robbery in which his friend was killed, but the jury agreed with the evidence that Addison and Jaray presented to show that the gun he had was a BB gun, which does not count for a gun enhancement, and that his former gang affiliation didn't have anything to do with the robbery.
The jury found both the gun allegation and the gang allegation not true. Jaray was found guilty of the conceded charges and was to four years eight months prison. Addison saved him from 71 years to life in prison.
This is one the slides that Addison used in his closing argument. He argued to the jury that the police should have investigated McCoy as opposed to using him as a snitch.

These are the verdict forms from Jaray's acquittal

This is the press from when Jaray and Addison won the trial




This is Jaray, Addison and the investigator on the case after the verdicts

This is Jaray and Addison several years ago when Jaray visited Addison at the Santa Barbara Courthouse

This is the press from Jaray and Addison's murder trial victory, you can follow the press here from beginning to end
"On Thursday the panel reached verdicts on Jaray Christy, 26, and on Tuesday returned their votes on co-defendant Jerron Henderson, 21, both charged with murder in the fatal shooting of Marshawn Burns, 29, of Moreno Valley.
Jurors acquitted both men in the death of Burns, and also found them not guilty on counts of robbery and attempted robbery unrelated to the liquor store holdup.
They also found not true the enhancement allegations of gang activity in a violent felony.
. . .
The second key moment came when a prosecution witness, whom [co-defendant's attorney Darryl] Exum said was a gang member, was identified by a woman under examination by Christy's defense attorney Steele as the man who had robbed her--for a charge in which Christy had been named.
It was one of the robbery charges separate from the Alessandro Liquor holdup.
'That kind of lost the case for the prosecution as a whole,' Exum said."
. . .
'We ate up two months of a civil courtroom, where regular people from Riverside should have been having their injuries resolved and their contracts disputes resolved,' Steele said.
He estimated his client originally faced 71 years to life, and now faces perhaps a possible maximum of six years, four months."














