TESTIMONY BEGINS IN FATAL MARIJUANA SHOOT-OUT AT MOTEL

OROVILLE -- A Vallejo man went on trial Wednesday, charged with the
murders of two of three men killed in a gun battle during a marijuana
buy at an Oroville motel in 2006.

Though there is no evidence Deandre Tyrone Lowe, now 39, was ever
armed, prosecutors are charging him with murder under the so-called
"felony murder rule," which holds accomplices liable for deaths that
occur during certain serious crimes.

According to police reports, during the Oct. 22, 2006, transaction at
the Best Value Inn in Oroville, one of four would-be buyers, Dejuan
Dean, 34, of Vallejo, pulled a gun and ordered the other two men with
him -- including Lowe -- to scoop up the money and drugs, from three
Concow area pot sellers.

Thomas Kile, 37, of Concow, pulled his own gun at that point. In the
ensuing gun battle, Kile, Dean and a second drug buyer, Lee Miles
Nixon, 33, were killed.

Lowe's Oakland attorney, Mario Andrews told Lowe's jury Wednesday the
government reasoned, "Three men are dead and someone has to pay."

The defense attorney pointed out all three of the surviving white
marijuana sellers involved in the deal were allowed to plead guilty
to "simple drug charges" and a fourth man, who rode with them to the
motel, was not charged at all because he had no criminal record and
would make a "perfect witness" for the prosecution.

Conversely, Andrews told the all-white seven-man, five-woman jury the
prosecution saw Lowe as the "perfect defendant" to take the rap
Advertisement for the deaths, because he was from out of town, had
twice gone to prison for drug-related crimes and, "he's black, too."

District Attorney Mike Ramsey, who is prosecuting the case, contends
Lowe drove up with the other two men from the Bay Area, carrying a
roll of "flash money" intended to put the sellers off their guard.

The $12,000 was far less than needed to purchase the 20 pounds of
pot, much of which was medical marijuana.

Inside the motel room following the deadly shoot-out, police found a
package of plastic zip-lock ties containing Nixon's fingerprints,
which the prosecution contends the three Bay Area men had brought to
tie up the sellers.

"This was a drug rip-off gone horribly and predictable bad," Ramsey said.

Testifying for the prosecution Wednesday were two of the convicted
pot sellers, Joshua Roberts, now 23, of Oroville, and Jeffrey Hutton,
38, of Concow and a friend of Hutton's who was never charged in the
case, Philip Velador of Red Bluff.

Velador, a licensed vocational nurse, claimed that on the day of
ill-fated drug deal, he had gone up to visit Hutton, a close friend
since high school, to help him trim some of his medical marijuana and
watch football.

He denied taking part in the drug deal, saying he only went along for
the ride that afternoon. Roberts and a third co-defendant, Shaun
McDeavitt, were paroled only a few weeks ago after serving identical
four-year prison sentences based on a felony drug plea.

Hutton testified Wednesday he drew 150 days in jail and 200 hours of
community service after pleading guilty to transportation of marijuana.

He told the jury Kile had called earlier in the day to ask if he
could supply some marijuana for the large transaction that was being
set up. Hutton testified he brought about three pounds of his medical
marijuana over to Kile's home.

Roberts, who admitted to being the "middle-man" in the deal,
testified Nixon asked weeks earlier if he could arrange a sale of
from five to 20 pounds of marijuana.

Roberts said Dean, in a phone call before the transaction, objected
that the $2,800 per-pound price was too high. He said they also
haggled over the location of the drug deal, with the buyers
preferring to meet in Sacramento and the sellers wanting it closer to
their Concow homes.

Hutton, Roberts and Velador told the jury Wednesday they did not know
anyone in their group was armed that day.

Once at the motel, Dean continued to object to the price, before
excusing him to go into the restroom and emerging a few seconds later
with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, the sellers testified.

He fired a shot into the ceiling, ordered everyone onto the floor and
directed his companions to grab the pot. That's when Kile pulled his
own .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol and fired at Dean, Ramsey told the jury.

Nixon was found dead sprawled in a pool of blood in the motel
doorway. Kile was fatally wounded inside the motel room and died
later that night at a local hospital, as did Dean, who managed to
crawl out into he motel parking lot before collapsing, his gun next to him.

Hutton told the jury he fled, but thought better of it and returned
to the motel to surrender to police. Roberts was apprehended with the
aid of a K-9 unit, and McDeavitt turned himself into his parole
officer. Velador had taken refuge in a closet. Ramsey told the jury
Lowe was arrested nearly a year later in Seattle.

The trial is scheduled to resume today and could be in the jury's
hands by the end of next week.

More than a dozen family members and friends of Lowe said they plan
to commute from Vallejo every day for the trial.

Kile's family was also present. His mother complained outside of
court that until the trial, she had never received details of how her
son died, nor were family members allowed to see his body at the
hospital the night of the gunfight.