SAN DIEGO — An 18-year-old man was lured to San Diego’s Paradise Hills neighborhood last year on the promise that he would get a good deal on a laptop computer that had been advertised on Craigslist.
Garrett Berki, 18, of Mission Beach. — Handout photo
Garrett Berki of Mission Beach was robbed of the $600 he brought with him, and after chasing a trio of teenage thieves in a car into an unfamiliar neighborhood, he was shot. The bullet pierced an artery, causing Berki to bleed to death.
Rashon Abernathy, 18, Seandell Jones, 19, and Shaquille Jordan, 18, are now on trial facing felony charges including murder, robbery and shooting into an occupied vehicle. If convicted — and the gang and gun-use allegations are found to be true — they each could be sent to prison for more than 50 years to life.
Lawyers on both sides of the case agree that a robbery occurred on May, 11, 2011, followed by the shooting that claimed Berki’s life. But defense attorneys contend that those were two separate events, which conflicts with the prosecution’s apparent theory of the case.
“The robbery was over and therefore there’s no felony murder,” said Wil Rumble, who represents Jones.
During his opening statement Monday, Deputy District Attorney Kristian Trocha told the jury that Abernathy posted an ad for a MacBook Pro at least twice last year.
“This was a setup from the get-go,” Trocha said in court, noting that a Toshiba computer was found in a backpack when the defendants were arrested.
“It was never going to be a sale,” the prosecutor said. “It was always going to be a robbery.”
On May 5, 2011, a potential buyer made arrangements to meet with the seller — who went by the name “Derek” — at a Paradise Hills park. But instead of a legitimate transaction, Abernathy and an accomplice grabbed the money and ran, the prosecutor said.
You have to be so careful when dealing with Craigslist. I'm so sorry this lovely young man lost his life.
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