Prosecutors Say Oakland Man Robbed, Raped, Beat Woman To Death Near Lake Merritt
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- A prosecutor told jurors Monday that there is sufficient evidence to convict an Oakland man of murder and two special circumstance allegations for the beating death of a woman near Lake Merritt in Oakland last year.
In her opening statement in Prince "Frank" Tsetse's trial, prosecutor Stacie Pettigrew alleged that Tsetse, 41, picked up 23-year-old Kimberly Robertson at a bus stop near East 18th Street and Park Boulevard in the early morning hours of April 5, 2014, and then had sex with her, robbed her and killed her.
Pettigrew said Robertson, who was in a criminal justice program at Heald College in San Francisco and had a daughter who's now 4 years old, had been drinking with her boyfriend at the Lakeside Lounge at 338 E. 18th St. They got into an argument so she walked off and went to a nearby bus stop, where she eventually got into Tsetse's Toyota 4Runner SUV for an unknown reason.
Pettigrew said Robertson's dead body was found a few hours later and DNA and blood evidence indicates that Tsetse had sex with her and killed her.
The prosecutor said that in addition, Robertson's cellphone and jewelry were stolen.
Pettigrew told jurors that at the end of Tsetse's trial, she will ask them to convict him of murder and the special circumstances of committing a murder during a rape and committing a murder during a robbery.
But Tsetse's attorney, Ernie Castillo, said he will ask jurors to find Tsetse not guilty of all charges, saying Tsetse didn't have a motive to kill Robertson and the timeline of events in the case indicates that he couldn't have been the killer.
Castillo said Tsetse had been with his wife and family earlier that evening, but left home after arguing with his wife and then "made a stupid decision" to pick up Robertson and pay her to have sex with him.
Castillo said Tsetse had "a one-night stand" with Robertson but was only with her for about an hour and then dropped her off near a park at Park Boulevard and Third Avenue at about 3 a.m.
Tsetse then drove home and never saw Robertson again, Castillo said.
The defense attorney said Tsetse couldn't have been the person who killed Robertson because doctors believe she died within an hour of being beaten and her body wasn't found until about 6:30 a.m., more than three hours after Tsetse last saw her.
Castillo said, "The evidence will show that Frank did not kill or rape Ms. Robertson," who had moved to Oakland from Texas about six months earlier.
"Having a one-night stand doesn't make you a rapist and doesn't make you a killer and there's no evidence he (Tsetse) had a motive to kill or hurt her," Castillo said.
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