Police: San Leandro Teen Admits Involvement In Fatal Shooting Over iPhone
SAN LEANDRO (CBS SF) -- One of two 18-year-olds charged in the murder of a 32-year-old Redwood City husband and father over his iPhone has admitted his involvement to investigators, according to police.
Marcus Fortune, a San Leandro resident and the alleged shooter, was arrested in San Leandro last Thursday and Jordan Patton, the alleged accomplice, was arrested outside his home at 881 Jamestown Ave. in San Francisco on Nov. 19, according to Alameda County Sheriff's Deputy Kurtis Imperial.
The two are charged in the Nov. 18 fatal shooting of Daniel Carlos at the 76 gas station at East 14th St. and 159th Avenue, near the Bay Fair BART station in unincorporated San Leandro, police said Tuesday. Carlos was trying to sell an iPhone X to them and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Fortune admitted to investigators that he was involved in the shooting and said the meeting with Carlos "was a planned take and go," Imperial wrote in a probable cause statement.
Fortune refused to identify Patton as a co-participant but said he was with another person and said "things were not supposed to go down that way," Imperial wrote.
Patton was charged shortly after he was arrested and Fortune was charged and arraigned on Monday. Both teens were scheduled to return to Alameda County Superior Court in Dublin Tuesday to be assigned attorneys and possibly enter pleas.
Carlos was between jobs but used to work for Tesla and is survived by his wife and their 5-year-old daughter, according to sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Ray Kelly said.
Kelly said the fatal shooting of Carlos was "shocking" because it was in broad daylight at one of the major intersections in Alameda County where there's a lot of vehicle and foot traffic.
Carlos met the suspects through an online app called "letgo" on which people list items that they want to sell, Kelly said.
Imperial wrote that the arrangement to sell a new iPhone to the suspects was made by a relative of Carlos who was with him during the transaction but wasn't injured.
The relative stayed inside his car while Carlos waited outside nearby with the cellphone, according to Imperial.
The relative said that when Carlos handed the cellphone to the two suspects, they both began to run out of the gas station's parking lot so Carlos chased after them, according to Imperial.
Carlos "was subsequently shot and killed by one of the suspects as they fled with the cellular phone," Imperial wrote.
Several witnesses provided similar descriptions of the suspects and one witness saw the suspects enter a white Nissan Maxima with no license plates, the deputy wrote.
In addition, footage from a nearby surveillance camera depicted distinctive features on the Nissan, according to Imperial.
Additional investigation helped deputies identify Fortune and Patton as the suspects and to arrest them. Patton was driving the Nissan when he was arrested on Nov. 19, Imperial wrote.
Patton told investigators that he was the only person who drove the Nissan on Nov. 18 and denied being in the area where Carlos was killed and denied any knowledge of or involvement in the homicide, Imperial wrote.
However, when deputies searched the Nissan they found a cellphone, which was still in its box, that was the same model and color of the phone that was stolen from Carlos, according to Imperial.
Deputies also found dark-colored clothing that was similar to what the suspects were wearing at the time of the shooting.
When deputies searched Fortune's residence in San Leandro after he was arrested, they found a black .40-caliber semi-automatic handgun and several unexpended .40-caliber bullets, Imperial wrote.
Some of the bullets contained the same manufactured head stamp brand that was located on the expended .40-caliber shell casing that was found at the murder scene, according to Imperial.
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