Woman Accused In Oakland Triple Homicide In Court
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- New details have surfaced about the woman charged in the brutal murder of an Oakland family last week.
61-year-old Dana Rivers was in an East Bay courtroom Wednesday to face several charges including murder.
Rivers once made headlines as a trailblazing transgender activist.
KPIX 5 cameras weren't allowed in the courtroom, but Rivers was captured on video two decades ago when she was man planning to become a woman and fired from her teaching job for it.
Rivers was born as David Warfield but in 1999 she told her employer, the Center Unified School District in the Sacramento area, that she was transgender and planned to live as a woman.
Rivers was asked to leave her job after a small group of parents complained about her and later became a spokeswoman for transgender issues
Rivers is accused of killing a couple and their son early Friday morning. Police arrived to find 19-year-old Toto M. Diambu, who was also known as Benny Diambu Wright, shot in the street and a nearby house on fire.
Inside the home, authorities found his mother, Patricia Wright, and her wife, Charlotte Reed shot and stabbed. All three victims died.
Oakland police said Wright was covered with blood and was about to flee when she was arrested by officers who responded to reports of gunfire.
Authorities said Rivers tried to set the house on fire but the blaze was confined to the garage area and was quickly controlled.
Oakland police Officer Hector Jimenez wrote in a probable cause statement that officers found ammunition and knives in her pockets when they searched her.
As officers were detaining Rivers she "began making spontaneous statements about her involvement in the murders," Jimenez said.
Court documents state Rivers planned to kill the family of three. She faces three charges of murder, felony arson and a weapons charge for possessing brass knuckles.
Because the charges are so severe, she faces life in prison. If the prosecution pursues it, she could face the death penalty.
Diambu graduated last spring from the Berkeley High School Academy of Medicine and Public Service, according to Berkeley Unified School District spokesman Charles Burress.
About 100 people remembered Diambu at a vigil at the high school on Monday, Burress said.
Wright worked for the school district from 2006 to 2015, beginning as a deaf interpreter and then becoming a special education teacher at King Middle School in Berkeley, Burress said.
After she retired last year, she became an elementary school teacher at Berkeley Arts Magnet School, he said.
Wright also worked part-time as a computer prep teacher at Esperanza Elementary School in Oakland, according to Oakland Unified School District spokesman John Sasaki.
Rivers was supposed to enter a plea in court Wednesday, but that did not happen. She is scheduled to return to court to enter her plea on December 8.
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